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The Pampa (from Quechua for 'plain') is a fertile plain around Buenos Aires in Argentina, comprising most of Buenos Aires, La Pampa and Santa Fe provinces and part of Córdoba province as well, and extending into Uruguay and the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. It is also, by extension, a biome type.
The pampa is a temperate grassland. Climate is typically semiarid or continental of the middle latitudes, with 250 to 500 mm precipitation a year. Much of this falls as snow, serving as reservoir of moisture for the beginning of the growing season. Summers are warm to hot, depending on latitude.
Vegetation is essentially of perennial grasses and perennial forbs and Leguminosae. There may be two or more strata of grasses depending on water availability.
Other types of the same biome have different names. It is called prairie in North America, steppe in Eurasia, veld in South Africa.
The Argentine pampa has a warm, humid and windy climate with a wide variety of native species. Frequent fires ensure that only small plants such as grasses flourish, and there are few trees. Much of the area is used for grazing cattle, although an increasing area is being dedicated to soybeans.
There is a place called Pampa in Kerala, India. Pampa is also the name of a river flowing at the foothills of Sabarimala.
See also
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