An oak savanna is a type of savanna, or lightly forested grassland, where oaks (Quercus spp.) are the dominant tree species. These savannas were maintained historically through wildfires set by lightning or humans, grazing, low precipitation, poor soil, and/or fires set by Native Americans. Although there are pockets of oak savanna almost anywhere in North America where oaks are present, there are three major oak savanna areas: 1) California and Oregon in the west; 2) Southwestern United States and Mexico; and 3) the prairie/forest border of the Midwest. There are also extensive regions of oak savannas in Portugal and Spain.
Read more about Oak Savanna: Edwards Plateau Savanna, Midwestern Oak Savannas
Famous quotes containing the word oak:
“Alas for America as I must so often say, the ungirt, the diffuse, the profuse, procumbent, one wide ground juniper, out of which no cedar, no oak will rear up a mast to the clouds! It all runs to leaves, to suckers, to tendrils, to miscellany. The air is loaded with poppy, with imbecility, with dispersion, & sloth.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)