Different Habits of Plants

Published by Keerthana in Science
July 12th, 2008

Plants show diverse habits and these depend upon the nature of their stem, their height, and the duration and mode of their life. We can roughly group them into certain common habits.

Herbs are small plants with soft stems. Examples of herbs are mustard, radish, ginger and parsley.

Shrubs are medium sized plants with a hard and woody stem often branched and bushy. Examples are China rose, garden croton and night jasmine.

Trees are tall plants with a clear hard and woody stem. Examples are the mango tree, banyan, Sal and eucalyptus.

Creepers are plants that creep on the ground like the wood-sorrel.

Climbers climb neighboring objects by means of tendrils, leaves or thorns. Examples of climbers are seen in the ivy, vine, passion flower, pea, glory lily and the climbing rose.

Twiners bodily twine round some support. The country beam, railway creeper and the Rangoon creeper are common twiners.

Lianes climb large trees and reach their tops. They are thick and have woody stems. They are perennial climbers and climb up trees to search for sunlight. They are commonly found in thick forests as well as in some gardens. The common ones are the hiptage, camel’s foot climber, cowage and some species of figs.

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