Chaparral ( chaparral, chaparrel, chaparral , Spanish: chaparral , from chaparro - “bushy oak thickets”) - a type of subtropical hard-leaved shrubbery. Distributed in a narrow strip of the Pacific coast of California and in the north of the Mexican Highlands , at an altitude of 600-2400 m.
Similar biomes are found in four other regions of the Mediterranean climate throughout the world, including the Mediterranean basin (where it is known as maquis , maccia, maquis ), central Chile (where it is called Matorral ), and in the Cape of South Africa ( Cape of Good Hope ) (known as finbosch there ) and in southeast and southwest Australia.
The absence of trees is not related to human activity, although a number of researchers consider chaparral, like maquis , as a stage of degradation of oak evergreen forests . Chaparral thickets reach a height of 3-4 m.
The most typical of chaparral is an adenostoma ( Adenostoma fasciculatus ), which forms pure natural plantings. Overgrown shrubs of evergreen oaks, bearberry (18 species), representatives of the genera sumy , zeanotus (25 species) and others are widespread. At the upper border of chaparral, the proportion of deciduous species of oak, irgi , cercis increases .
See also
- Chapy
- Pyrophytes