Plant habit or general appearance

Herbaceous plants are plants that are not woody. Most annual plants remain herbaceous throughout their lives. Some perennials have shoots that die back to the ground each year: their roots live year-round, but they put up new shoots every year. These shoots often remain herbaceous, the plant is referred to as an "herbaceous perennial. [Note: The Jepson Manual reserves the abbreviation "per." (meaning "perennial") for herbaceous perennials.] Some herbaceous plants do not support themselves without using another structure for support; those are vines.

Woody plants may be referred to as...

• Trees (woody plants that are of medium height or tall, and have just one to a few main stems)
• Shrubs (woody plants that are shorter and have many branched stems from near the base)
• Sub-shrubs (even shorter plants whose stems are woody only near the base, and flexible or fairly herbaceous for the rest of their length)
• Lianas (woody vines)

 

 

 

References:

The Arizona Master Gardner Manual (produced by the Cooperative Extension, College of Agriculture, University of Arizona) is a good resource with lots of basic and applied information. You just need to remember that we are not in Arizona, and that their desert gets a bit more summer, monsoonal rainfall than the areas around San Bernardino and Victorville.