Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Wednesday - May 27, 2015
From: Billings, MT
Region: Rocky Mountain
Topic: General Botany
Title: Use of the word annual
Answered by: Jimmy Mills
QUESTION:
Why is the word 'annual' used to describe plants with one grow season, when in all other cases it's used to describe things that reoccur year after year? i.e. Events, celebration, salary?ANSWER:
The mission of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is to increase the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants, and landscapes. In addition, Mr. Smarty Plants likes to impart knowledge when he can.
In English, often times words can have more than one meaning. From the two links below, you can see that this is the case for the word “annual”.
< http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/annual >
< http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/annual >
To keep you occupied, I would like for you to check out our Botanical Glossary and use the Search Bar to find definitions for the words 'biennial" and "perennial". You can also look in the links above.
More General Botany Questions
Strange form of Dasylirion sp. (sotol)
December 27, 2008 - Mr. Smarty: I have a client with a huge (2 ft. diameter trunk), multi-headed dasylirion. On one or more of the heads, the leaves arch inward instead of outward. Someone said this is because of an inju...
view the full question and answer
Taxonomy question concerning the Family Commelinaceae
June 17, 2014 - Hi I have a question. Many people refer to plants differently, I have always used the Genus and species and rarely the family name..it is very confusing .. when a professional uses a name that is a co...
view the full question and answer
Plants named for Thomas Drummond
February 09, 2009 - Dear Mr. Smarty Plants, Please send list of plants discovered and named for Thomas Drummond.
view the full question and answer
Plants adding calcium to soil
June 08, 2006 - Hi,
I am looking for a resource to help determine the functions of native plants. For instance, nitrogen fixing can be found in Indigo, Lead plant, lupines. Are there other plants that add back cal...
view the full question and answer
Why will my Butternut trees not produce nuts in Tennessee?
May 06, 2009 - I have 2 butternut trees planted about 20 ft from each other. I see the long blossoms on each tree but I have not gotten any nuts from either tree. I do not know if I have a male and female or if th...
view the full question and answer
| Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |