A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with

woody plant A woody plant is a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody plants further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposed to Herbaceous plant, herbaceous plants that die back to t ...

s (

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s and

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

forming open

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s with plenty of

sunlight Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible spectrum, visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrare ...

and limited shade (see differences between

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, American and

Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language. While Australia has no of ...

explained below). Some

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

s may also be woodlands, such as ''savanna woodland'', where trees and shrubs form a light canopy. Woodlands may support an

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

of shrubs and

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition o ...

s including

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

es. Woodland may form a transition to

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

under drier conditions or during early stages of primary or

secondary succession Secondary succession is the secondary ecological succession of a plant's life. As opposed to the first, primary succession, secondary succession is a process started by an event (e.g. forest fire, harvesting, hurricane, etc.) that reduces an a ...

. Higher-density areas of trees with a largely closed canopy that provides extensive and nearly continuous shade are often referred to as

s. Extensive efforts by conservationist groups have been made to preserve woodlands from

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from Rural area, rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. ...

and

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

. For example, the woodlands of

Northwest Indiana Northwest Indiana, nicknamed "The Region" after the Calumet Region, is an unofficial region of Northern Indiana, northern Indiana, United States that is located at the northwestern corner of the state. Though there is no official definition of th ...

have been preserved as part of the Indiana Dunes.

Definitions

United Kingdom

''Woodland'' is used in

woodland management Forest management is a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, forest protection, and forest regulation. This includes man ...

to mean tree-covered areas which arose naturally and which are then managed. At the same time,

is usually used in the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

to describe

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

s, usually more extensive, or hunting

Forests A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological functio ...

, which are a land use with a legal definition and may not be wooded at all. The term '' ancient woodland'' is used in British nature conservation to refer to any wooded land that has existed since 1600, and often (though not always) for thousands of years, since the last Ice Age (equivalent to the American term

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

)

North America

Woodlot is a closely related term in American

forest management Forest management is a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, forest protection, and forest regulation. This includes man ...

, which refers to a stand of trees generally used for firewood. While woodlots often technically have closed canopies, they are so small that light penetration from the edge makes them ecologically closer to woodland than forest. North American forests vary widely in their ecology and are greatly dependent on abiotic factors such as climate and elevation. Much of the old-growth deciduous and pine-dominated forests of the eastern United States was harvested for lumber, paper pulp, telephone poles, creosote, pitch, and tar.

Australia

In Australia, a woodland is defined as an area with a sparse (10–30%) cover of trees, and an open woodland has a very sparse (<10%) cover. Woodlands are also subdivided into tall woodlands or low woodlands if their trees are over or under high, respectively. This contrasts with forests, which have more than 30% of their area covered by trees.

Woodland ecoregions

Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Afrotropical realm The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...

** Angolan miombo woodlands (Angola) ** Angolan mopane woodlands (Angola, Namibia) ** Central Zambezian miombo woodlands (Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia) ** Eastern miombo woodlands (Mozambique, Tanzania) ** Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe) ** Zambezian and mopane woodlands (Botswana, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe) ** Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands (Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe) * Nearctic realm ** Madrean pine–oak woodlands (Mexico) *

Neotropical realm The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

** Cerrado woodlands and savannas (Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay)

Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

** Al Hajar montane woodlands (Oman) *

Australasian realm The Australasian realm is one of eight biogeographic realms that is coincident with, but not (by some definitions) the same as, the geographical region of Australasia. The realm includes Australia, the island of New Guinea (comprising Papua Ne ...

** Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland (Australia) ** Cumberland Plain Woodland (Australia) ** Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland (Australia) ** Grey Box Grassy Woodlands (Australia) ** Lowland Grassy Woodland (Australia) ** New England Peppermint Grassy Woodland (Australia) * Nearctic realm ** Central forest–grasslands transition (United States) ** Upper Midwest forest–savanna transition (United States) *

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The ...

** Gissaro-Alai open woodlands (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan)

Montane grasslands and shrublands

** Angolan Scarp savanna and woodlands (Angola) ** Drakensberg alti-montane grasslands and woodlands (Lesotho, South Africa) ** Drakensberg montane grasslands, woodlands and forests (Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa) ** East African montane moorlands (Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda) ** Ethiopian montane grasslands and woodlands (Ethiopia) * Nearctic realm ** Pinyon–juniper woodland (United States) *

** Kopet Dag woodlands and forest steppe (Iran, Turkmenistan)

Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub

** Banksia Woodlands of the Swan Coastal Plain (Australia) ** Coolgardie woodlands (Australia) ** Mount Lofty woodlands (Australia) ** Murray-Darling woodlands and mallee (Australia) ** Naracoorte woodlands (Australia) ** Southwest Australia woodlands (Australia) ** Swan Coastal Plain Shrublands and Woodlands (Australia) * Nearctic realm ** California chaparral and woodlands (United States) ** California montane chaparral and woodlands (United States) ** California interior chaparral and woodlands (United States) Lebanon cedar forest

** Canary Islands dry woodlands and forests (Spain) ** Eastern Mediterranean conifer–sclerophyllous–broadleaf forests (Turkey, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon) ** Mediterranean acacia-argania dry woodlands and succulent thickets (Morocco, Canary Islands) ** Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia) ** Mediterranean woodlands and forests (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) ** Southeastern Iberian shrubs and woodlands (Spain)

Deserts and xeric shrublands

East Saharan montane xeric woodlands The East Saharan montane xeric woodlands is an terrestrial ecoregion, ecoregion of central Africa, a number of high mountains in the middle of the huge area of savanna on the edge of the Sahara Desert. Location and description The ecoregion c ...

(Chad, Sudan) ** Madagascar succulent woodlands (Madagascar) ** Somali montane xeric woodlands (Somalia) ** Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands (Saudi Arabia, Yemen) *

** Baluchistan xeric woodlands (Afghanistan, Pakistan) ** Central Afghan Mountains xeric woodlands (Afghanistan) ** Central Asian riparian woodlands (Kazakhstan) ** North Saharan steppe and woodlands (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara) ** Paropamisus xeric woodlands (Afghanistan) ** South Saharan steppe and woodlands (Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan) ** Tibesti-Jebel Uweinat montane xeric woodlands (Chad, Egypt, Libya, Sudan) ** West Saharan montane xeric woodlands (Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, Niger)

References

External links

*
The UK Woodland Trust

Woodland Bond
{{Authority control Forests Habitats