Date: 29/11/2022 Shift: 2:30 PM – 5:30 PM Q. No: 226

The savanna landscape is typified by tall grass and short trees. It is rather misleading to call the savanna ‘tropical grassland’, because trees are always present with the luxuriant tall grass. The terms ‘parkland’ or ‘bush-veld’ perhaps describe the landscape better.

Trees grow best towards the equatorial humid latitudes or along riverbanks but decrease in height and density away from the equator. They occur in clumps or as scattered individuals.

The trees are deciduous, shedding their leaves in the cool, dry season to prevent excessive loss of water through transpiration, e.g., acacias. Others have broad trunks, with water-storing devices to survive through the prolonged drought such as baobabs and bottle trees. Trees are mostly hard, gnarled, and thorny and may exude gum like gum arable. Many trees are umbrella shaped, exposing only a narrow edge to the strong winds.

Palms which cannot withstand the drought are confined to the wettest areas or along rivers. Vegetative luxuriance reaches its peak in the rainy season, when trees renew their foliage and flower. In true savanna lands, the grass is tall and coarse, growing 6 to 12 feet high. The elephant grass may attain a height of even 15 feet! The grass tends to grow in compact tufts and has long roots which reach down in search of water. It appears greenish and well- nourished in the rainy season but turns yellow and dies down in the dry season that follows. The grass lies dormant throughout the long, rainless period and springs up again in the next rainy season.

In between the tall grass are scattered short trees and low bushes. As the rainfall diminishes towards the deserts the savanna merges into thorny scrub. In Australia, this scrubland is particularly well represented by a number of species: mallee, mulga, spinifex grass and other bushes.