Chaparral or Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub is a temperate biome, characterized by hot-dry summers and mild and rainy winters. Nearly all of the rainfall occurs in the winter and spring rainy season.
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub ecoregions occur in the worlds five mediterranean climate zones, on the west coast of continents in the mid-latitudes: the Mediterranean Basin, California, Central Chile, Southwest Australia, the Cape Province of South Africa and as far north as the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada.
These
regions are home to a tremendous diversity of habitats and species.
Vegetation types can range from forests to woodlands, savannas,
shrublands, and grasslands; "mosaic" landscapes are common, where
differing vegetation types are interleaved with one another in complex
patterns created by variations in soils, topography, exposure to wind
and sun, and fire history. The five mediterranean-climate regions of
the world occupy less than 5% of the earth's surface yet harbour about
48,250 known vascular plant species, almost 20% of the world total.
They also have exceptionally high numbers of rare and locally endemic
plants, and include some recognized species flocks, which are clusters
of numerous closely-related species, especially in Southwest Australia
and the Cape Province.
Much of the woody vegetation in
mediterranean-climate regions is sclerophyll, which means 'hard-leaved'
in Greek. Sclerophyll vegetation generally has small, dark leaves
covered with a waxy outer layer to retain moisture in the dry summer
months.
