Talk:Plain

Alluvial

"A plain is a landform formed by the deposition of alluvial soil over a long period of time by a river coming from the mountains." Isn't that just the definition of an alluvial plain, which is something different? Billy Shears 20:20, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes. I have changed "a plain" to "an alluvial plain", though I don't know if it needs to be removed altogether. Joe D (t) 21:55, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Merge suggestion

whether it makes sense to merge all these small plain articles into one. `'mikka 19:58, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Missing plains

I removed the list. There is Category:Plains, which works fine. The following articles are red:

• Alexis Leigh Plain, USA
• Australian Plains
• Pianura Padana, Italy

`'mikka 19:58, 7 March 2007 (UTC) You will NEVER find info on this for an assignmebt

All plains have a defined boundary?

i wanted to add a sentence to mention that plains generally as bounded by a geological and physical feature sucha as mountain a set of hills or a body of water. What are there people's thoughts on this idea? Chrisfromcanberra (talk) 01:41, 6 February 2009 (UTC) max− —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.251.10.73 (talk) 13:58, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Contradition in terms

this is all so freakin' wrong!!!!!! have any a y'all been in 8th grade? what idiots

The first sentence reads

'relatively high relief, as well as flat'

Isn't this a contradition? low relief means flat. High relief means the opposite. Chrisfromcanberra (talk)

I changed the wording to

'with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling' BrasilianEngineer —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brasilian Engineer (talk • contribs) 00:59, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Cleanup needed

I came to this article to understand what is and isn't a "plain," and ended up more confused.

Can they have trees?: I added "[primarily] treeless" to the article description and first sentence, because that's in the definitions of dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster.

Is "plain" a landform or biome? There's an overall confusion in this article: does "plain" describe a landform, or a category of biomes, or both? The flatness suggests landform, the treelessness suggests biome category. (I am quite sure that referring to a flat, forested expanse as a "plain" is would be nonstandard.) The sentence "In a few instances, deserts and rainforests can also be plains" is 'very' confused on whether we're talking about a a biome or landform. I changed it to "In a few instances, deserts and rainforests may also be considered plains." (I haven't checked the source, so I'm trusting it does support that.) Even with this "may also be considered" phrasing, it's unclear: is the idea that a desert biome can cover a plain landform?

Grammar and style: I removed a lot of strange "would be"s, and "on the doorsteps of mountains" - but further cleanup is needed to meet Wikipedia's style guidelines. SSSheridan (talk) 12:48, 22 April 2021 (UTC)

Subtypes: here, "grasslands" and "steppe" etc. are being distinguished by their climate; however, Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands distinguishes "steppe" as being a term used for Asian temperate grasslands, as "prairie", "pampas", and "veld" are used in North America, South America, and Africa, respectively. SSSheridan (talk) 13:01, 22 April 2021 (UTC)

Changes, 14 Sept, 2025

The first sentence had read: "In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless." This is false though, for a couple reasons: 1) Not all plains are "primarily treeless". Some plains (or portions thereof) are, if they receive little rainfall, or are cleared for agriculture or grazing, or have poor soil, or are located in very cold regions. But plains are certainly not inherently treeless, and in fact many plains include large forest areas (or would if it weren't for human activity). Whoever wrote the article seems to have conflated plains, on the one hand, with grassland/prairie biomes, on the other. While grasslands/prairies are mostly located on plains, plains are certainly not always grasslands!

Also, the "does not change much in elevation" part isn't necessarily true either, as some plains have very significant, but slow/gradual elevation changes, such as the Great Plains of North America. Denver is famously known as the "mile high city", due to its elevation, but Kansas City is at a much lower elevation, and it's plains the entire way in between the two. So I've reworded for better accuracy. -2003:CA:873A:15C8:92F0:2494:A1B6:9C1F (talk) 20:14, 14 September 2025 (UTC)