Physiognomy and Structure: Mesomorphic perennial grasses and shrubs are the most common growth forms in this formation, with a variable amount of perennial forbs. Trees are scattered to largely absent (typically <10% cover). Grasses and forbs grow to different heights at maturity. Furthermore, some grasses and most forbs are erect, while others are recumbent, creeping along the ground. Thus a distinct layering of plant foliage occurs in some temperate grasslands. Forbs and grasses may grow and bloom at different times during the growing season, so temperate grasslands may have recognizable color phases, or aspects, depending on what plants are blooming. This is especially evident in the east European steppes. Grasses and perennial forbs are well-suited to withstand cold seasons and tolerate grazing and fire because of the position of their renewal buds near the ground surface. The plants are generally able to regenerate from these buds after seasonal die-downs, burns, or cropping by grazing animals (Woodward 2008). Among the grasses, both sod-forming and bunchgrasses are prominent throughout, but bunchgrasses become a much more frequent component of the vegetation in the drier short-grass regions.

Floristics: No Data Available

Dynamics:  Temperate grasslands around the world have been so heavily altered by human activities (especially grazing of livestock, plowing under and conversion to agriculture, increased fire frequency, or cessation of grass fires) that little survives that is truly natural. Fire may have been the first way people managed grasslands. Annual burning eliminated tree and shrub seedlings and stimulated the growth of new grass shoots. Deliberate burning may have occurred as soon as fire itself could be managed in order to attract the wild grazing animals upon which hunting and gathering peoples, and indeed, early agriculturalists, depended for protein. Repeated firing of the forest edge may have expanded grasslands into wetter climate regions, such as the Prairie Peninsula of the U.S. and the eastern pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. Later, farmers and townsfolk stopped all wildfires, and trees invaded the grasslands (Woodward 2008).

Pastoralism in all likelihood first developed in the temperate grasslands of the Old World. Shifts in plant species abundance no doubt accompanied the spread of pastoral societies, since livestock select the most palatable plants. Weedy grasses and forbs evolved in response to the trampling and cropping of the vegetation by cattle, sheep and other hoofed grazers. Tolerant of disturbance and preferring open habitat, weeds typically germinate rapidly in full sun, have short lifespans, produce large numbers of easily dispersed seeds, and thus spread quickly to new disturbed sites. Not surprisingly, Old World weeds followed cattle, sheep, and goats when the animals were transported to other parts of the world (Woodward 2008).