Talk:Prairie

Notes

The difference between prairie and grassland might be enlarged on. Shouldn't they be discussed at one entry, perhaps? --Wetman 08:46, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Prairie is most applicable to native grassland types. In North America, these occur primarily between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians, from north central Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The term is used at all landscape scales, and may refer to a very small, specific prairie remnant (such as Hoffman Prairie, in north, central Iowa, USA), or a very large area with specific physiographic features and vegetative communities, such as the sandhills prairie, in central Nebraska. The term is very general and requires modifiers when referring to a specific landscape feature or ecosystem. Regional maps showing the historic extent of prairie because of their scale fails to communicate that sizable prairies existed well east of what is typically delineated. Some types of native prairie landscapes are functionally extinct, existing only in heavily managed areas, such as the tallgrass praries

The image provided is not representative of prairie. It shows common reed (Phagmites australis) (arguably a non-native wetland plant) in the background and reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) (an invasive Eurasian introduction) in the foreground.

(Talk page vandalism deleted here Taquito1 (talk) 02:55, 17 March 2010 (UTC))

2% left in United States?

Meaning, 2% of the total land area of the United States, or 2% of the original prairie? 71.172.238.99 (talk) 19:32, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Drought section - apparently prairies were created by god. I disagree. I believe Charles Darwin would disagree as well.

what is a prairie?

The "definition" doesn't really do a good job of explaining what a prairie is... flat? hilly? has trees? No trees? etc... It rather seems to talk to classification schemes. But no test is provided that one could apply to a stretch of land to decide if it was a prairie or not. ++Lar: t/c 11:25, 19 May 2009 (UTC)this was an niki haineman state place before 14202601:540:8203:BBD0:3D18:DEF9:7F35:BA89 (talk) 19:23, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

dustbowl?

Aren't these the areas of the Dustbowl in the US? Shouldn't this ariticle say so? Wasn't the metal plow the start of a decade of nightmare as well as the beginning of successful farming on the prairie? IceDragon64 (talk) 22:54, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Merge

At the risk of offending it seems to me this article should be merged or renamed/rescoped in some fashion.

The article purports to be talking about a type of terrain (as opposed to a geographical area) but is really focused entirely on North America. Though there are unique aspects to the North American prairies I would argue that these are not so unique as to merit as merit an article for the sub-category of terrain in NA. If we look for example, at the French WP article this is linked to, that article is talking about a geographical area with grassland ecology but does not purport to be talking about a unique terrain type. The term "prairie" is really an Americanism invented to describe the NA grasslands.

I would suggest one of the following:

• Merge with North American Prairies Province
• Rename the article to North American Prairies (that article is currently a redirect here); if this is done there needs to be a clear distinction made between what this article covers and what North American Prairies Province covers
• Merge with Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and perhaps move some of the NA-specific content to North American Prairies Province

--Mcorazao (talk) 17:59, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Turkey Foots?

Sorry, but I had to delete "turkey foot(s)" without discussion. Foots? If I am wrong, give me a reference. Anyway, turkey foot is big bluestem, so I added that, and it has a Wikipedia article. This reference [1] calls it "turkey feet". This one [2]capitalizes it as "Big bluestem". This source [3] looks useful. But nothing seems to support "turkey foots". Taquito1 (talk) 02:55, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center, Pennsylvania

I read the article[4], and it looks like it's a woodland, not a prairie. Now I am a rather extreme inclusionist, so if anyone can come up with an even remotely plausible reason why this should be included, I'm OK with it. Otherwise, I think it should be deleted. Also, I noticed two places in Florida are listed---and Florida is not mentioned anywhere else in the article---but I do know that Florida has a lot of tall grass, so maybe this merits inclusion. Shanoman (talk) 03:26, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Corn, Soybeans major food crops?

This is rather doubtful. About 95% of the corn grown in the U.S. is not destined for usage as human consumption. Ditto with soybeans. You can check references in their corresponding articles on their usage. Corn - livestock feed and ethanol production. Soybeans - soybean oil, livestock feed. I perceive an amount of POV in this article. --66.41.154.0 (talk) 16:21, 24 June 2014 (UTC)

I rephrased the following sentence: "Unlike corn and soybeans which are both directly and indirectly major food crops, including livestock feed, prairie grasses are not used for human consumption." Italic mine. Maybe this will fix it... Dinkytown talk 10:11, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

Fertility, Deep roots

This statement is dubious as well. Prairie grasses grow and produce seed in spring and early summer. By the time July rolls around, they are done for the year and go dormant in the dry conditions. Conversely modern corn varieties are growing strong and remain green throughout the summer because of a deep root system (typically 8-10 feet). Not sure about soybeans. --66.41.154.0 (talk) 16:33, 24 June 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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Geography

Where is prairie Grassland located? 106.79.204.160 (talk) 12:58, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Did you look at the map in the article? SpinningSpark 13:31, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

First picture

I'm not familiar with how to edit pictures but could we change the lead picture to one of the really nice one's below rather than just a picture of grass. RichmanHopson (talk) 17:28, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

What to do with the Physiography section?

The section labeled Physiography is incredibly long, repeats information stated elsewhere in the article, and seems to have an excessive amount of detail for an encyclopedic treatment of the subject, some of which feels tangential to the essence of "Prairie." On top of that, it cites no sources. Due to this, I've considered deleting it all, but I am reluctant to do this. However, I am stuck on how to tackle trimming it down and salvaging it, since it's a formidable text wall and I would have to track down citations for the statements given without knowing where they originally are from. PerytonMango (talk) 18:20, 30 May 2023 (UTC)