morgan

Vigorous weeds will tend to take over if given the opportunity, but they do require a rich soil. By reducing nutrient levels, other plants, including the wild flowers, are given the opportunity to thrive. It is a counterintuitive fact that the poorest of soils are usually the ones with the highest plant diversity. With the plants come those animals that depend on them. The flowers, leaves and seeds are all important food resources for various species of insects and other invertebrates. They in turn fall prey to larger predators, including owls, kestrels, badgers, hedgehogs, foxes, weasels and bats. Some species of birds, including skylarks, rely on the meadow for their ground-level nest sites. Sadly, the traditional methods are no longer practised widely. Grass is grown to feed a farmer's animals during the winter months, and that purpose is better served by spraying the fields with fertilisers, or even ploughing and re-seeding whole areas. Instead of making hay, the crop is wrapped in plastic and fermented to produce silage. Only a handful of species can survive this intensive management, and rye grass predominates. You will be lucky to see any wild flowers at all in a modern silage crop.
 * = [[image:http://www.mnr.org.uk/about/nature/bindweed.jpeg width="150" height="150" caption="Greater Bindweed"]] ||
 * = Hedge Bindweed ||
 * = [[image:http://www.mnr.org.uk/about/nature/cinquefoil.jpeg width="150" height="150" caption="Common Cinquefoil"]] ||
 * = Common Cinquefoil ||

PLANT LIFE CYCLE The plant life cycle has mitosis occurring in [|spores], produced by meiosis, that germinate into the [|gametophyte] phase. Gametophyte size ranges from three cells (in [|pollen]) to several million (in a "lower plant" such as moss). [|Alternation of generations] occurs in plants, where the [|sporophyte] phase is succeeded by the gametophyte phase. The sporophyte phase produces spores by meiosis within a[|sporangium]. The gametophyte phase produces gametes by mitosis within an antheridium (producing sperm) and/or archegonium (producing eggs). Within the plant kingdom the dominance of phases varies. [|Nonvascular plants], the mosses and liverworts, have the gametophyte phase dominant. [|Vascular plants] show a progression of increasing sporophyte dominance from the ferns and "fern allies" to angiosperms.



The Bull Snake, //Pituophis melanoleucus//, is a hissing constrictor from North America. This snake is also called the gopher snake (in western North America) and the pine snake (in eastern North America). It is a constrictor, a snake that kills by squeezing prey until the victim can no longer breathe. The Bull Snake makes a hissing noise - because of this noise, people sometimes mistake it for a [|rattlesnake].

**Grass land biomes are unaltered areas of land where grass is the dominant plant life, as opposed to other terrestrial biomes where trees occupy most of the land surface. Grassland are found around the globe and have served as grazing areas for a large number of animals, and have been exploited as farming grounds or plantations by humans.

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[[Grasslands|All grasslands share a lack of shelter from predators, and an abundance of grass for food; therefore, grassland animal populations are similar throughout the world. The dominant vertebrates in grasslands are herbivorous or plant-eating grazers called ungulates. Ungulates are mammals with hoofs, like horses and deer. Their long legs help them run fast to escape grassland predators. The temperate grassland does not have much animal diversity, especially compared to the **[|**Savannah**]**. Some animals that inhabit temperate grasslands in North America are bison, antelope, birds, gophers, prairie dogs, coyotes, and insects. On the steppes you’ll find similar animals to the Great Plains including lynx, antelopes, falcons, and fox.]]  **reproductive Cycle** During the breeding season, July and August, bison bulls leave their bachelor groups and mingle with the cow-calf herds. Bulls usually fight furious battles for the possession of females at the start of the mating season. The strongest bulls tend individual cows until capulation is completed. The calves are born in April or May after a gestation period of nine to nine and a half months. Bison calves are typically born one at a time. After the calf is born, it is able to stand and nurse within one hour; it is also able to open its eyes. The calves hair is a light chestnut color but the will change to the adult color of a dark brown in fall, a pale-yellow in winter, and a brown in spring and summer. The calf is old enough to mate in its second year of life. It is considered an adult bison in five to six years.

**Life Cycle** After the calf becomes an adult, its further steps in life depend upon its gender. The females will continue to live in the herds with other female bison and their calves. The herds have an average size of 57 bison. The male bison live either solitary or exist in small, male (bachelor) herds. During the mating season, the male bison will reunite with the female herd. The males will engage in fights by methods, such as ramming heads, in order to get the female of their choice. At this point, the reproductive cycle starts again creating another life which will go through the same life processes.