Mesoamerican Savanna and Grassland - Code: Ne6F

The Mesoamerican Savannas are something of a catchall for several microhabitats in a  mosaic of dense grasses and scattered trees hat could be parsed  out, but  occur in such a fine and complex melange that they are almost impossible to tease apart, in some areas forming groves, sometimes tickets and even and treed savanna parkland with patches of flooded grassland.. The savannas have an anthropogenic influence in that they are probably much more widespread now than in prehuman times, and the proto savannas may have been limited to the seasonally flooded areas and very sandy soils. The savannas on the richer soils they are likely derived from cleared or burned dry deciduous forest, and overall the sandier soils tend to have more open feel with the groves occurring on the loamier and nutrient rich soils. 
With  average annual temperature ranges from  72°F to 82°F ( 22°C to 28°C), this is generally a warm to hot monsoonal, seasonally dry habitat (Koppen Awa), that has a wide range of precipitation variation from almost semi-arid in the north to wet in the south, and  much of the 30 to 63 in (750 to 1600mm) rain falls during intense summer rainy seasons between May and October.  Coastal areas tend to be slightly cooler due to the influence of the ocean, while inland areas may experience higher temperatures.
Mesoamerican Savanna is clinal from the north to south. In the north, the savanna is dominated by microphyllous (small-leaved) and sometimes thorny trees that look like ESPINAL from South America, or the arid  EASTERN MESQUITE from the north, and although it includes broadleaf components, broadleaf trees never dominate the way they do in the MADREAN ENCINAL.  In the north of the range,  wooded groves are dominated by Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) that have an open canopy of of between 10-20 ft (3-6m), and are mixed with  Texas Ebony  (Ebenopsis ebano) Desert Hackberry (Celtis ehrenbergiana) Wild Cashew Tree (Curatella americana), Bluewood Condalia (Condalia hookeri.) Nance (Byrsonima crassifolia) and Calabash Tree Crecentia cujete. The Mexican Calabash (Crecentia alata), a tree which grows to 25ft (8m) tall as an emergent in this environment, was very rare when europeans arrived; it has very hard gourds (hence the name calabash tree) protecting the fruit that could only be opened by long extinct megafauna. It is now opened by horses and humans and for that reason seems abnormally common around farm fields. 
The understory and shrub layer is dominated by palms such as Sombrero Palm (Brahea dulcis) along with shrubs and small trees such as  Wild Lime (Zanthoxylum fagara), Spiny Hackberry (Celtis ehrenbergiana), Texas persimmon (Diospyros texana), and Texas Hog Plum (Colubrina texensis). Cactus are represented with seemingly ubiquitous Prickly Pear (Opuntia engelmannii) and the Christmas cactus, (Cylindropuntia leptocauli).
Although grasses occur extensively in the north of the range, it is in the south where the habitat changes from a semi arid one to a full moist tropical environment that the habitat is more doiminated by thick grasslands with palms. Grasses in the drier and/or sandier wooded areas tend to be the same as in the more open areas,  are around 4 ft -5 ft tall, and dominated by little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium),red lovegrass (Eragrostis secundiflora) and Texas grama (Bouteloua rigidiseta) in the north, with  Shore little bluestem (Schizachyrium littorale). In the south Hooded Windmill Grass (Chloris cucullata), silver beard grass (Bothriochloa laguroide),   Multi-flowered False-rhodesgrass (Trichloris pluriflora,) are more common. In the areas that are prone to partial flooding during the year, Gulf Dune paspalum (Paspalum monostachyum), and Pan American Balsamscale (Elionurus tripsacoides) become more common, and thick fields of Brownseed Paspalum (Paspalum plicatulum) grow that reach 12 ft height and are much more reminiscent of the flooded grasslands of India or the Pantanal than of the dry grasslands of Mesoamerica.
Fire is a major component of these savannas and in the absence of overgrazing or cutting, the habitat could be regarded as a seral in the succession to a climax community of dry woodland. The grasslands can last up to 20 years without fire before becoming a woodland, though there is usually burning around every five years; this contrasts markedly with the grasslands of West Africa or Northern Australia that are prone to more frequent burning. During the mid stages of development between 20 and 50 years, fire frequency diminishes and the woodlands attain a climax community dominated by Honey Mesquite, Texas Ebony, and Wild Cashew Tree. This fire regime frequency are succession is now being changed through human intervention; he shrub understory of the groves and the grasslands  are prone to being destroyed through overgrazing, and thickets can form with a canopy monoculture of Honey Mesquite with an understory of Prickly Pear (Opuntia engelmannii) and bluewood condalia (Condalia hookeri), and the overall appearance merges with that of TAMAULIPAN MEZQUITAL.
Caribbean Savanna subhabitat: In the Caribbean this habitat is more prevalent as a dense and thorny shrubland about 2-6m high, rather than a treed savanna, though it does have palm trees throughout the shrubland. It occurs over such a wide variety of substrates, rather than the predominantly sandy soils that the Mexican savannas form; it is particularly prevalent over iron rich soils derived from the Cuban serpentinite belt, a series of metamorphic rocks formed from the cooking of mafic and ultramafic rocks such as basalts. Over other substrates such as sedimentary rocks, it is probably mainly derived from the degradation of the dry forests.  Although it is dominated by the microphyllous trees, it differs from North American thornscrubs in that cactus are rare in this environment, but Royan’s Tree Cactus (Pilosocereus royenii) can be found in most thickets; even more surprising is the alternative name of Dildo Cactus, which leaves this author both  perplexed and rather disturbed. Other shrubs indicative of this habitats include Puerto Rico ceboruquillo: (Thouinia striata), Cuban torchwood (Jacquinia shaferi), and the widespread Common Myrtle (Myrtus cabanesensis). There are small palm trees such as Fragrant Cuban Thatch Palm (Coccothrinax fragrans), Blue Star Palm (Hemithrinax savannarum),, Cuban Blue Star Palm (Hemithrinax rivularis), and vines such as Morning glory (Ipomoea carolina).