"Thank you, sir!" Astrid said excitedly. She raised her hand again and tried to explain it how she had learned it, hoping that she was correct. "An annual is an herbaceous plant that completes its full life cycle within one growing season. An annual seed germinates; the plant grows to full maturity, blooms, sets seed and dies all in one growing season. Some annuals self sow their seeds once mature and the seeds will lay dormant until the right conditions are present. Usually the onset of spring with warmer soil temperatures will enable the seed to germinate, starting the life cycle over again in the next growing season. A perennial is an herbaceous plant that lives for more than two years. Even though woody plants such as trees and shrubs are also perennial in their habit, when used in the context of a noun perennial refers to herbaceous plants. Perennials return year after year growing back from their dormant rootstock each spring. Most perennials are polycarpic, flowering over many seasons in their lifetime. Perennials that flower and fruit only once and then die are monocarpic, for example some bamboos can take over 100 years to bloom and then die."