Chaparral
near Santa Barbara, California
Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community. It is found mainly in the U.S. state of California. Also in the northern portion of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico. It is caused by a Mediterranean climate (mild, wet winters and hot dry summers) and wildfire.
A chaparral has summer drought-tolerant plants.[1] They have hard sclerophyllous evergreen leaves.[2] Chaparral covers 5% of the state of California.[3] Of the associated Mediterranean shrubland, it covers an additional 3.5%.[3] The name comes from the Spanish word chaparro, referring to scrub oaks.[4]
There are four other chaparral regions in the world.
- parts of the Mediterranean coast, known as maquis
- Central Chile, known as matorral
- South African Cape, known as fynbos
- South Australia, known as kwongan
Chaparral does not often have fires. These are usually at intervals from 10–15 years to over a hundred years. Mature chaparral often has dense thickets. They are highly flammable.
Chaparral Media
Old-growth chaparral more than a century old
Coastal sage scrub in San Diego County
An old-growth manzanita, a classic member of the chaparral plant community
Wrentit, the most characteristic bird of the chaparral
Transmontane chaparral in the Laguna Mountains, Cleveland National Forest
Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) resprouting after a high-intensity chaparral fire
Wildflower display after the 2007 Witch Creek Fire, San Diego County, California
Impact of high fire frequency: chaparral/sage scrub type converted to non-native grassland
References
- ↑ Nancy Bauer, The California Wildlife Habitat Garden (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), p. 175
- ↑ William Skinner Cooper, The Broad-sclerophyll Vegetation of California: An Ecological Study of the Chaparral and its Related Communities (Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1922), p. 21
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Hotspot; California on the Edge". California Academy of Sciences. 2005. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ↑ Peter R. Dallman, Plant Life in the World's Mediterranean Climates: California, Chile, South Africa, Australia, and the Mediterranean Basin (Berkeley: University of California Press; Sacramento: California Native Plant Society, 1998). p. 67