Compare and contrast the location and extent of both, the Prairies and the Veld.
Answers
Just as a forest can be defined as the place where trees
are the main type of vegetation, grassland can be
defined as a region where grasses form the dominant
type of plant life. Grasslands make up almost a quarter
of the total land surface. The types of plants that
grow here greatly depend on what the climate and soil
are like. As climate plays an important role in the
formation of grasslands, it is generally used as a basis
to divide the world’s grasslands into two broad
categories: those that occur in the temperate region
and those that occur in the tropical regions.
THE PRAIRIES
The temperate grasslands of North America are known
as the Prairies (Fig. 9.1). It is a region of flat, gently
sloping or hilly land. For the most part, prairies are
treeless but, near the low lying plains, flanking river
valleys, woodlands can be found. Tall grass, upto two
metres high, dominates, the landscape. It is actually a
“sea of grass.”
The prairies are bound by the
Rocky Mountains in the West and
the Great Lakes in the East. Look
at the map of North America
(Fig. 9.2). You can see that the
prairies cover parts of United States
of America and parts of Canada. In
the USA, the area is drained by the
tributaries of Mississippi and the
Canadian prairies are drained by
the tributaries of Saskatchewan
Rivers.
Word Origin
The word Prairie
originated from Latin
word priata which
means meadow.
Fig. 9.1: The Prairies
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Explanation:
The prairies are tropical grasslands. The pampas and the velds are temperate grasslands. The velds are situated in Central Asia. The largest grasslands in the world are in Africa.
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