A plant that takes two years to complete its life cycle. It grows vegetatively in the first year and the photosynthates are stored in perennating organs. The stored food is used to produce foliage leaves, flowers, and seeds the following year. The plant then dies. Some important crops are biennials, e.g. carrot (Daucus carota) and parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). Certain garden flowers that are in fact perennials are more successfully grown as biennials, e.g. wallflower (Cheiranthus cheiri) and Antirrhinum. Compare annual , ephemeral , perennial. |
