Grasslands are huge plains of grass, trees and bushes. They grow in warm, dry places where there’s too little rain for forests to grow, but enough rain to stop the land turning into a desert.
Amazing! Grassland animals eat different bits of the grass to avoid competition – zebras eat the tops, wildebeest eat the stems.
What are grasslands used for?
People use grasslands for grazing animals such as cattle which are raised for their meat. They also grow crops such as wheat and barley in gigantic fields. One wheat field in Canada was the size of 20,000 soccer pitches.
Why did grassland turn to dust?
In the 1930s, farmers in the south-west USA ploughed up the grasslands to grow wheat. But a terrible drought turned the soil to dry, useless dust which blew away in the wind. This was called a dustbowl.
Is it true? Rice is a type of grass.
Yes. Rice is a cereal plant, which belongs to the grass family. The grains of rice come from the flower-heads. Rice grows in flooded fields in South East Asia.
Picture Credit : Google