Meadow

For other uses, see Meadow (disambiguation).

Meadow in full flower near Grindelwald in the Swiss Alps. Such meadows even on steep hillsides are traditionally hand mown with hay scythes in late summer

A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants (grassland). The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay. It may be naturally occurring or artificially created from cleared woodland.

Agricultural meadow

Especially in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the term meadow is commonly used in its original sense to mean a haymeadow, signifying grassland mown annually in the summer for making hay. "Pasture" is the term used in contrast for land which is grazed throughout the summer, which may include grassland ("grass pasture"), but also includes non-grassland habitats such as heathland, moorland and wood pasture. "Grassland" is used to include both meadow and grass pasture.

Transitional meadows

A transitional meadow occurs when a field, pasture, farmland, or other cleared land is no longer grazed by livestock and starts to display luxuriant growth extending to the flowering and seeding of its grass and wild flower species. The condition is however only temporary because the grasses eventually become shaded out when scrub and woody plants become well-established, being the forerunners of the return to a fully wooded state.

In North America prior to European colonization, Algonquian, Iroquois and other Native American people regularly cleared areas of forest to create transitional meadows where deer could find nutrition and be hunted. Many places named "Deerfield" are located at sites where Native Americans once practised this form of land management.

Perpetual meadow

Coastal meadow at the Bay of Biscay near Tapia de Casariego, Spain

A perpetual meadow is one in which environmental factors restrict the growth of woody plants indefinitely. Examples include:

• Alpine meadows occur at high elevations above the tree line and are maintained by harsh climatic conditions
• Coastal meadows are maintained by salt sprays
• Desert meadows are restricted by low precipitation
• Prairies are maintained by periods of severe drought and are subject to wildfires
• Wet meadows are semi-wetland areas saturated with water throughout much of the year.

See also

Flood-meadow near Hohenau an der March, Austria

• Coastal plain
• Field
• Flooded grasslands and savannas
• Flood-meadow
• Grassland
• Marsh
• Pampa
• Pasture
• Plain
• Plateau
• Prairie
• Rangeland
• Savanna
• Sods
• Steppe
• Tundra
• Water-meadow
• Wet meadow
• Veld

References

• Cornell University
• The Washington Post, "Today, 32,000 seedlings; tomorrow, a meadow"

External links

• UK Wild Meadows Website
• Irish Wild Meadows Website
• Flora locale - information on creating wildflower meadows
• Meadow Planting
• A Year in a Meadow (Ottawa Canada)
• Grow a Back Yard Meadow (Ottawa Canada)