What are non-woody plant stems called?

Question

What are non-woody plant stems called?

Answer 1

Nonwoody plant stems = herbaceous

Woody plants are known as non-herbaceous

Herbaceous plants don’t have the woody covering (see the very last line of this essay).

According to Wikipedia:  Ã¢Â€ÂœA stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence (flowers), cones or other stems etc. The internodes act as spaces that distance one node from another. The term shoots is often confused with stems; shoots generally refer to new fresh plant growth and does include stems but also to other structures like leaves or flowers. The other main structural axis of plants is the root. In most plants stems are located above the soil surface but some plants have underground stems…

All gymnosperms are woody plants. Their stems are similar in structure to woody dicots except that most gymnosperms produce only tracheids”

According to Wikipedia:  Ã¢Â€ÂœA herbaceous plant (or in botanical use, a herb) is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be annual, biennial or perennial.

Annual herbaceous plants die completely at the end of the growing season or when they have flowered and fruited, and they then grow again from seed….

By contrast, non-herbaceous perennial plants are woody plants which have stems above ground that remain alive during the dormant season and grow shoots the next year from the above-ground parts – these include trees, shrubs and vines.”

According to Wikipedia:  

“A woody plant is any vascular plant that has a perennial stem that is above ground and covered by a layer of thickened bark. Woody plants are adapted to survive from one year to the next; the stem supports continued vegetative growth above ground from one year to next.

A perennial plant with true woody stems contain wood, which is primarily composed of structures of cellulose and lignin which provide support and a vascular system used to move water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves and sugars from the leaves to the rest of the plant. Most woody plants form new layers of woody tissue each year, and so increase their stem diameter from year to year. The new wood is deposited on the outer parts of the stem under the bark on most plants but in some monocotyledons such as palms and dracaenas, the wood is formed in bundles from meristem cells within the trunk. In palms, the wood is formed in the center of the stems. The dermal layer has been modified to protect the stems from the elements with a thickened covering of dead tissue, generally called bark.

Woody plants are usually either trees, shrubs, cactus, or perennial vines.

Some annual plants appear to form woody stems in their first year, but die at the end of the growing season. They are herbaceous stems without the dead bark covering.”

Answer 2

Elizabeth H: Normally I agree with your answers, but why specify dicotyledonous? Monocots can (and often do) have non-woody stems.

I think the answer, therefore, is simply herbaceous stems.

Answer 3

herbaceous