Jednoleté

Jednoleté is a term used in Czech botany and horticulture to describe plants whose life cycle is completed within one year or one growing season. It functions as an adjective and is used with nouns such as rostlina (one example is jednoletá rostlina) or plodina. The plural form jed oleté rostliny is common when referring to multiple species or individuals.

Life cycle and characteristics: Annual plants germinate, grow, flower, produce seeds, and die within a single growing season. The seeds persist and enable the population to continue in the following year, often aided by seed banks in the soil. In temperate regions, annuals complete their development during one warm period and typically do not survive the winter as mature plants. Some species may be cultivated as annuals even if they are capable of longer lifespans in their native habitats, depending on climate and agricultural practices.

Relation to other lifecycles: The term is contrasted with biennial (dvoudleté) plants, which require two years to complete their life cycle, and perennial (trvalky) plants, which live for more than two years and may flower repeatedly. The designation of a plant as one-year or perennial can depend on ecology, geography, and cultivation conditions, and some species may switch categories under different environmental settings.

Etymology and usage: Jednoleté is derived from prefixes meaning “one” and “year” and is widely used in Czech and Slovak botanical literature. It helps distinguish species and cultivars by their life strategy, informing cultivation decisions, weed management, and ecological studies.