There are many famous annual plants. You may grow many of them in your garden. Poppies are annuals you will see in the fields and hedgerows.

The advantage of an annual is that it can grow quickly from seed. This means you will find annuals growing in a bare patch of ground long before long-lived plants (perennials) which may take many years to develop.

Perennials eventually grow so big that they stop annuals from growing. But grazing animals keep down perennials and allow annuals to grow as well. This is what makes a meadow.