Moody. A contemplative space.
Black oaks, their looming figures stark against the swirling fog. Prairie grasses, nipped by frost, browned, brittle, curl at the feet of the giant trees.
An oak savanna.
“A savanna is generally defined as a plant community where trees are a component but where their density is ‘…so low that it allows grasses and other herbaceous vegetation to become the actual dominants of the community.'” (Curtis, The Vegetation of Wisconsin).
Photographed at Owen Conservation Park in Madison, Wisconsin.