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Savanna woodland consists of trees spaced rather widely apart, permitting development of a dense lower layer, which may be of grasses or shrubs. This formation class is sometimes referred to as parkland because of the open, parklike appearance of the vegetation. Savanna woodland is associated with a climate regime in which aridity is sufficiently developed to prevent the tree growth from forming a closed canopy. Many geographers associate savanna woodland closely with the tropical wet-dry climate. It is this tropical variety of woodland that is implied in the world vegetation map by the inclusion of savanna woodland with Class C vegetation. However, from the standpoint of the vegetation structure itself, the definition of savanna woodland can be broadened to include woodlands of middle latitudes, such as the open stands of yellow pine and of pinion pine and juniper which, in the western United States, occur in an elevation zone above that of the sagebrush scrub and below that of the needleleaf forests. One might also include in this formation class the Eucalyptus woodlands of southern Australia.

Referring now to the tropical savanna woodland, the trees are of medium height, the crowns flattened or umbrella-shaped, and the trunks have thick, rough bark. The trees tend towards exophytic forms' with small leaves and thorns, or may be deciduous, shedding their leaves in the dry season. In this respect, tropical savanna woodland is closely akin to monsoon forest, into which it grades. The tress are of species capable of withstanding fires which sweep through the lower layer in dry season; thus many rainforest tree species which might otherwise grow in the wet-dry climate regime are prevented by flies from invading.

Tropical savanna woodland is found widely throughout Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, northern Australia and in Central America and the Caribbean Islands. The pedogenic process usually dominant is laterization.

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