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Nature Gallery (Eco Regions)

Mediterranean Woodlands
A climate of mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers characteristically produces woodlands composed of evergreen shrubs and small trees. Many of these have small, hard leaves—sclerophylls—that resist drying by closing the pores through which water vapour can escape. After the season of drought, the sclerophylls resume their photosynthetic activity.

Fire is a regular feature of these woodlands, whose scrubby character is maintained by frequent burns. By sending up new sprouts from its root crown, a shrub can rebound more quickly than most trees from the effects of fire. Many species in these woodlands are fire-resistant, such as the thick-barked Mediterranean cork oak. Others are fire-dependent and will only bloom, release their seeds, or germinate after a fire.
Mediterranean woodlands grow in five widely scattered regions. The best known, and the ones for which this class of eco-regions is named, are the woodlands that grow all around the Mediterranean Sea. Almost all of this area’s original vegetation of evergreen oaks and pines has been altered by people over the course of the last several millennia. Where vineyards and olive groves do not displace them, communities of dense shrubs—maquis or macchia—are typical. Shorter shrublets, or garigue, are even more common. Both types contain many species rich in aromatic oils, which may deter the ubiquitous goats and sheep.

Woodlands similar to the maquis occupy the region of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Called the fynbos, this eco-region contains an extraordinary number of species, many of which are found nowhere else. In southwestern Australia, eucalyptus trees and protea shrubs dominate the jarrah and karri forests that occupy the zone of Mediterranean climate. In Chile, south of the desert, is a sclerophyllous scrub community called the matorral, and in central and southern California, the coastal hills are covered with the manzanitas, ceanothus, scrub oaks, and other plants that make up the chaparral.