What types of plants do not complete their life cycle within a single growing season?

Perennials are plants that can live for multiple years, completing their life cycle over several growing seasons. Unlike annuals, which germinate, grow, flower, seed, and die within a single season, and biennials, which typically take two growing seasons to complete their lifecycle, perennials grow and produce flowers and seeds over many years.

Perennials often have a growth pattern where they may die back to the ground in winter but will regrow from their root systems in the spring. This ability to survive through multiple years allows them to establish more extensive root systems, making them typically more resilient than both annuals and biennials.

In contrast, alpine plants are specific adaptations to cold, high-altitude environments and can include annuals, biennials, or perennials. They cannot be categorized distinctly based solely on their lifespan relative to the growing seasons. Therefore, perennials stand out as the correct answer for plants that do not complete their life cycle within a single growing season.