[suh-van-uh] 
| 1. | a plain characterized by coarse grasses and scattered tree growth, esp. on the margins of the tropics where the rainfall is seasonal, as in eastern Africa. |
| 2. | grassland region with scattered trees, grading into either open plain or woodland, usually in subtropical or tropical regions. |
| sa·van·na also sa·van·nah (sə-vān'ə) n. A flat grassland of tropical or subtropical regions. [Obsolete Spanish çavana, from Taino zabana.] |
| savanna or savannah (sə-vān'ə) Pronunciation Key
A flat, grass-covered area of tropical or subtropical regions, nearly treeless in some places but generally having a mix of widely spaced trees and bushes. Savannas have distinct wet and dry seasons, with the mix of vegetation dependent primarily on the relative length of the two seasons. |
savanna
vegetation type that grows under hot, seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by an open tree canopy (i.e., scattered trees) above a continuous tall grass understory. The largest areas of savanna are found in Africa, South America, Australia, India, the Myanmar-Thailand region, and Madagascar. Their distribution is shown in
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