I have been doing some studying about garden terms and have a botanical question. I was looking at Phygelius information and it was identified as a shrub. I had previously called it a perennial. So what differentiates a shrub from other perennials? I noticed some authors by-pass this problem by calling certain plants "sub-shrubs." And how does something like Yucca or Hesperaloe fit in? Are they shrubs also, even though they are succulent? Thanks for considering this... Marguerite, still growing mostly Iridaceae and Zephyranthes, and developing a new cottage-like garden for my local arid, dry and windy planting conditions at 3700 feet in southern California mountains.