ABSTRACT
The definitions of seasonally dry vegetation, savanna and seasonally dry forest are discussed. The basic geography, patterns of climate and human history, as well as the effects of fire, wild mammals and domestic animals, in Africa and South America are described. Key differences include the longer history of human occupation and animal domestication, and the related greater frequency of fire in Africa and the much more diverse large mammal fauna that did not suffer major extinctions during the Pleistocene. The major physiognomic vegetation types (seasonally dry forests, woodlands, bushland and thicket and grasslands) are outlined for each continent, and the terms used for equivalent vegetation in the two continents are compared. Some comparisons are also made of the composition of the major vegetation types, by plant family, in the two continents.
