A grassland is a large, open area of land where grasses are the main type of plant that grows. Trees and shrubs are rare or scattered in many grasslands because there isn't enough rainfall to support forests, but there's too much rain for the land to become a desert.

Different parts of the world have different names for their grasslands. In North America, we call some of them prairies. In South America, they're called pampas. African grasslands are known as savannas, and in central Asia, they're called steppes. Each type has its own character, but they all share that distinctive landscape of grasses stretching toward the horizon.

Grasslands are tougher than they look. The grass plants have deep, tangled root systems that can survive droughts, fires, and grazing animals. These roots hold the soil together and store energy, allowing the grass to grow back quickly after being eaten or burned. This resilience made some grasslands perfect for farming: when settlers plowed America's prairies in the 1800s, that deep, rich soil helped create some of the world's most productive farmland. Today, grasslands still support both wild animals like bison and antelope and domestic animals like cattle and sheep that graze on the nutritious grasses.