Tusomesasa.

Herbaceous plants are non-woody plants with soft stems. They are part of a larger group of herbs. Herbacous plants have a challenge obtaining support in their habitats.

The plants need support to enable them:

• Expose the leaves to sunlight to enable them carry out photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is important in enabling plants make their own food.
• Expose flowers to for pollination. This promotes cross pollination. cross pollination is important to enable plants  have variations and better qualities to enhance survival.

Herbaceous plants employ several mechanisms to enable them obtain support:

• They have tendrils - thread like structures enabling them to coil around any solid structure closer to them. This helps them access sunlight.  The tendrils use auxins to enable them show thigmotropism.
• Their stems are flexible enough to help them coil around hard objects. Auxins are key to facilitate the process.
• Through osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of solvent molecules (water molecules) from a region of low concentration to a region of high concentration. It enables cells to attain turgidity making them rigid hence creating a self supporting structure in the plants.

The plants also have faster growth rates to enable them to quickly be able to reach the most favourable conditions enabling them to grow well.

The plants are able to survive under intense climatic conditions. They are able to withstand high temperatures and extremes of heat enabling them to live in diverse habitats.

The plants can varry from annual, binnual and perennial. They have modified structures to adapt them to the diverse lifespan. These shll be discussed under adaptations to various habitats.