Definition: An area of land of low topographic relief that historically supported grasses and herbs, with few trees, and having generally a mesic (moderate or temperate) climate. Dominated by tall grasses (contrast steppe).
Definition: Determined for type of life cycle being annual, binneal, perennial etc.
Comment: The life cycle habit indicates the typical duration of an individual plant's life. Common values are annual, biennial, and perennial. Some plants have different durations depending on environment or location, so a plant can have more than one value.
Definition: Of plant duration, a plant whose life span extends over more than two growing seasons, c.f. annual, biennial, ephemeral, of flowering with respect to architecture, hapaxanthic, monocarpic, pleonanthic
Attribution: Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 12, July 2012. Glossary: http://www.mobot.org/mobot/research/apweb/top/glossaryi_p.html#perennial
Definition: the biochemical pathway a plant uses to gain carbon for growth and reproduction. Plants have evolved three photosynthetic pathways, each in response to distinct environmental conditions, resulting in differences in their ecological patterns of growth and distribution.
Definition: one of three metabolic pathways for carbon fixation in photosynthesis, along with C4 and CAM. This process converts carbon dioxide and ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP, a 5-carbon sugar) into 3-phosphoglycerate through the following reaction:
CO2 + H2O + RuBP → (2) 3-phosphoglycerate
This reaction occurs in all plants as the first step of the Calvin–Benson cycle.
