Meadow
Open habitats of grasses and herbs, vital for wildlife and carbon storage.
A meadow is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable conditions but are often artificially created from cleared shrub or woodland for the production of hay, fodder or livestock. Meadow habitats as a group are characterized as semi-natural grasslands, meaning that they are largely composed of species native to the region, with only limited human intervention.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Biome (first in sequence)
- Game
- Flower (2007)
- Developer
- thatgamecompany
- Platform
- PlayStation 3
- Player entity
- Wind-blown flower seed
- Primary mechanic
- Collect petals to grow; ride wind currents
- Companions
- Butterflies
Lore & Background
Meadows attract a multitude of wildlife and support flora and fauna that cannot thrive in other habitats. They are ecologically important since they provide areas for animal courtship displays, nesting, food gathering, pollinating insects, and sometimes sheltering if the vegetation is high enough. Intensified agricultural practices (too frequent mowing, use of mineral fertilizers, manure and insecticides) may lead to declines in the abundance of organisms and species diversity. There are many types of meadow, including agricultural, transitional, and perpetual – each being a unique and important part of the ecosystem. Like other biomes, meadows will experience increased pressure (including on their biodiversity) owing to climate change, especially as precipitation and weather conditions change. However grasslands and meadows also have an important climate change mitigation potential as carbon sinks: deep-rooted grasses store a substantial amount of carbon in soil.
Reader's Guide
Types of meadows include agricultural meadows (grassland not regularly grazed but allowed to grow for hay), transitional meadows (occur when cleared land is no longer cut or grazed and starts to display luxuriant growth, but only temporary until scrub and woody plants become established), and perpetual meadows (also called natural meadows, where environmental factors favor perennial grasses and restrict woody plants indefinitely). Perpetual meadows include alpine meadows, coastal meadows, desert meadows, prairies, and wet meadows. Urban meadows are also recognized as potential biodiversity conservation sites, with reduced mowing frequency promoting greater plant community diversity.
Did You Know?
- Traditional hay meadows were once common in rural Britain but are now in decline; England and Wales have lost about 97% of their hay meadows over the past century.
- In North America prior to European colonization, Native Americans regularly cleared areas of forest to create transitional meadows where deer and game could find food and be hunted.
- Urban meadows are seen as a more cost-efficient and biodiversity-friendly alternative to classic urban lawns.
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