Landscapes: Grasslands and Savannas
... mere open space, a lack of trees, and vegetation that doesn't rise above the height of a man's head do not make a prairie...prairie refers to a natural community which, like a giant organism, is composed of a multitude, a sum total of its parts. It is a complex ecosystem of grasses, flowering annual and perennial plants, shrubs, a few trees, and a variety of wildlife, from the macro-vertebrate to the microcosmic.
Mary Taylor Young
Land of Grass and Sky: A Naturalist's Prairie Journey
Wide open spaces but not quite deserts - those are the Grasslands and Savannas usually found between the equatorial rain-forests and the desert. Other Grasslands, like the Steppes of Central Asia and the North American Prairies are flanked by Temperate and Boreal Forests.
Covering nearly a quarter of our landmass, Grasslands and Savannas, Steppes and Prairies are not only the cradle of mankind, they provide the pastures and the crop fields that sustain us today.
