Hello, I was wondering, If you look at a plant fossil, what characteristics of it can be used to identify whether it came from a perennial plant, or annual?
It is a very interesting question. Do you mean if the plant survives winter ? Or just that you have to plant the seeds every year ?
In botany and horticulture, a "perennial" is a plant that lives longer than two years; in other words, it undergoes more than one reproduction cycle. Everything else is an "annual."
I suppose there are other differences . I have rubber plants in the house and they are alive , but if you let it be exposed to cold weather ( winter with show ) it dies and does not revive . So it is perennial but and depends on the climate.
Exactly. I imagine the periods of growth over summer, (and no growth over winter?) would somehow be evident within the fossil structure? But my biology is not so good...
