Looking for a Term
 

Is there a specific word to describe plants that die back for the winter?
Some examples would be Bleeding Heart, Hostas, Astilbe, etc.

Cheers,

Suzan

Suzan wrote:
Is there a specific word to describe plants that die back for the
winter? Some examples would be Bleeding Heart, Hostas, Astilbe, etc.

Cheers,

Suzan

If you mean the kind that come back in the spring.....perennial is what
they are.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5

Deciduous is the term she seeks.

Deciduous perennials, trees and bulbs all come back with new growth in the
spring (or whenever the growing season may be for the particular plant).

Mediterranean winter growing plants produce new growth with the winter rainy
season and are dormant during the dry summer. Many winter growing plants are
leafless in the summer.


"Travis" wrote in message
news:cWCNd.22259$uc.15265@trnddc03...
Suzan wrote:
Is there a specific word to describe plants that die back for the
winter? Some examples would be Bleeding Heart, Hostas, Astilbe, etc.

Cheers,

Suzan

If you mean the kind that come back in the spring.....perennial is what
they are.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5

In article ,
Suzan wrote:
Is there a specific word to describe plants that die back for the winter?
Some examples would be Bleeding Heart, Hostas, Astilbe, etc.

Herbaceous. "Deciduous" refers to woody plants where the leaves drop
off but they grow from the stem next year. "Perennial" means living
for more than two years, which is misleading - it would be better if
it mean plants that lived for an indefinite number of years.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

sometimes herbaceous perennial is the term used for this type of plant - as
opposed to "woody" perennial, or sub-shrub
"Suzan" wrote in message
...
Is there a specific word to describe plants that die back for the winter?
Some examples would be Bleeding Heart, Hostas, Astilbe, etc.

Cheers,

Suzan

"Stephen Henning" wrote in message
...
"Suzan" wrote:

Is there a specific word to describe plants that die back for the
winter?
Some examples would be Bleeding Heart, Hostas, Astilbe, etc.

They are herbaceous perennials.

After flowering in early summer, Bleeding Heart dies down, leaving a gap
in the garden. The others usually die back with the frosts of fall.


That's not true of all varieties of bleeding heart, at least not in my zone
6 garden. My dicentra 'Luxuriant doesn't go dormant in the heat as long as
it remains moist and is in a shady spot.

In article , "Vox Humana"
wrote:

"Stephen Henning" wrote in message
...
"Suzan" wrote:

Is there a specific word to describe plants that die back for the
winter?
Some examples would be Bleeding Heart, Hostas, Astilbe, etc.

They are herbaceous perennials.

After flowering in early summer, Bleeding Heart dies down, leaving a gap
in the garden. The others usually die back with the frosts of fall.


That's not true of all varieties of bleeding heart, at least not in my zone
6 garden. My dicentra 'Luxuriant doesn't go dormant in the heat as long as
it remains moist and is in a shady spot.

Our native western bleeding heart blooms all summer long & even self-seeds
in somewhat sunny locations & can get a bit aggressive in its spread.

-paggers
--
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"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
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"Vox Humana" expounded:

That's not true of all varieties of bleeding heart, at least not in my zone
6 garden. My dicentra 'Luxuriant doesn't go dormant in the heat as long as
it remains moist and is in a shady spot.

That isn't Dicentra spectabilis, which is the traditional 'Bleeding
Heart'. It does die down to the ground in summer. Dicentra formosa
and the variants continue on throughout the summer if they like the
conditions. Mine spreads like a weed, but a nice, controllable weed
G.

Ann

Then of course there is 'annual' which is that it dies completely at the end
of the year or growing season.

Austin is interesting. I had a Japanese Red Maple; very pretty tree in a
very large pot. It sprouted new leaves in the Spring and grew from March
until May, went dormant for the blistering summer. Then, come August, it
would sprout all new beautiful red leaves and grow until November. Then go
back to sleep.

It is a tree so is herbaceous by definition. Perennial...comes back at least
once each year. Deciduous....drops its leaves. But what is it really?

Even the St. Augustine does it, but it was REALLY obvious with all those red
leaves right outside the back door. (Oh, how the migrating humming birds
loved it! One female spent a week sitting in the limbs and running off all
the other hummingbirds...)

Once you get past that green line between Dallas and Austin, you really need
a new term!

Bi-deciduous? Multi-perennial? Biciduous?

Definition: lives more than three seasons and has two dormant seasons per
annum.

:)

John

"paghat" wrote in message
...
In article , "Vox Humana"
wrote:

"Stephen Henning" wrote in message
...
"Suzan" wrote:

Is there a specific word to describe plants that die back for the
winter?
Some examples would be Bleeding Heart, Hostas, Astilbe, etc.

They are herbaceous perennials.

After flowering in early summer, Bleeding Heart dies down, leaving a
gap
in the garden. The others usually die back with the frosts of fall.


That's not true of all varieties of bleeding heart, at least not in my
zone
6 garden. My dicentra 'Luxuriant doesn't go dormant in the heat as long
as
it remains moist and is in a shady spot.

Our native western bleeding heart blooms all summer long & even self-seeds
in somewhat sunny locations & can get a bit aggressive in its spread.

-paggers
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
people maintaining a free civil government." -Thomas Jefferson

In article ,
Tex John wrote:

It is a tree so is herbaceous by definition. Perennial...comes back at least
^
NOT
once each year. Deciduous....drops its leaves. But what is it really?

Correction added :-)

Also, things like angelica are usually classed as perennials, because
they often take 3 years to reach the flowering stage (when they die).
I find that misleading, but it is unclear how to distinguish that
from other perennials that may take 50 years to flower and die (like
some bamboos). The technical term for such plants is monocarpic.

I don't know of any terms for plants that estivate rather than hibernate
(and both of those terms are rarely used for plants), but deciduous
plants and facultative evergreen ones can be very variable on what
triggers them to drop leaves. Any or all of the following can do it:

Cold, as in frost or just continual lowish temperatures
Low light levels or short days
Heat, especially coupled with low humidity
Drought or other physiological stress (including waterlogging!)
Severe aphid, mite and other infestation
General leaf rot, due to cold and wet (common in the UK)

This is why many plants will go dormant in summer or winter in one
place but not in another, or do it one year and not another.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Tex John" wrote:

Austin is interesting. I had a Japanese Red Maple; very pretty tree in a
very large pot. It sprouted new leaves in the Spring and grew from March
until May, went dormant for the blistering summer. Then, come August, it
would sprout all new beautiful red leaves and grow until November. Then go
back to sleep.

It is a tree so is herbaceous by definition. Perennial...comes back at least
once each year. Deciduous....drops its leaves. But what is it really?

The tree is not herbaceous, it is woody.

This behavior is not too unusual. On the west coast, many trees grow
only in the spring and fall. If you look at stumps, you see two growth
rings per year, one in spring and one in fall. This is caused because
the summer is very dry and the winter is very cold. Some trees loose
their leaves in some unusually dry summers and some don't. In any case
the correct term for them is:

tree or shrub

In some cases they are diciduous like oak and larch
and in other cases they are evergreen like rhododendron and fir.
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Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA Zone 6