Grassy plants in the forests of our country are much more common than shrubs and trees combined. The length of their stem is usually small, although there are also quite high ones - banana, reed, corn, etc.
The feature that characterizes herbaceous plants is a soft or juicy aboveground stem. It is believed that such grass species are the result of the evolution of arboreal flora. Scientists came to this conclusion by comparing their anatomical structure with the anatomical structure of year-old branches of related tree species.
Herb plants are divided into several types according to their lifetime: annual, biennial and perennial.
Annuals include those whose whole life span is one vegetation period, i.e. one season that is favorable for their growth. As a rule, the seeds of such plants germinate in the spring, then they reach their normal size, bloom, bear fruit, and then completely die off. This is millet, cucumber, tomato, corn, flowering aster, petunia, wild quinoa, cornflower, wood lice, etc.
Biennial herbaceous plants have two periods of vegetation: in the first, their vegetative organs are formed, after which the leaves die off, and the roots remain, and in the second year shoots grow from the buds , the plant bears fruit, and then dies. These are beets, cabbage, carrots known to us, which alone cannot tolerate cold, therefore, usually gardeners dig them up and store them in cellars or cellars in order to plant pre-selected seeds in spring. Wild biennials are burdock, thistle, cumin, chicory.
However, the vast majority of species known to us are perennial herbaceous plants, many of which do not reach the flowering period in the first or even second year of their life, but five to ten years after seed germination. The period of flowering and fruiting is repeated for up to twenty years. Every year, new terrestrial shoots are formed from the buds, which by the end of the growing season die, however, not entirely: only the upper part dies, while what remains at or below the soil remains. Sometimes the shoots are spread on the ground, pressed to it with the planted residues.
Almost all herbaceous plants of the forest are perennial, many of which hold their place for a long time, while due to their long roots and terrestrial shoots, they spread in different directions, capturing new habitats.
This variety is poorly propagated by seeds, since in the forest the soil is almost always covered with a thick layer of fallen needles or leaves, which makes it difficult to germinate, and such a litter is not an obstacle to the vegetative method of propagation.
Many types of winter-green herbs grow in the forest, which reliably hide under a thick layer of snow. They are shade tolerant and tolerate the absence of light.
However, the forest is not the only habitat for perennial herbaceous plants. Many of them grow well in meadows, clearings, generally in any open place. Here they, as a rule, grow much more magnificent, and they bloom and bear fruit much more abundantly.
Grassy plants of the forest are always very sensitive to soil conditions: the presence of nutrients and moisture, so they can be called a kind of indicator of the state of forest land. That is why many of them are closely related by their distribution to the type of forest: some grow among deciduous, others among coniferous trees.
However, it is worth noting the fact that among herbaceous plants there are also those that have a very wide distribution area, independent of the type of soil. These are the so-called indifferent plants.