Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 4.1 Mediterranean Basin Shrublands
The most common names used for shrublands in the international (English)
literature.
Maquis: tall and dense, dominated by a diversity of broadleaf evergreen
shrubs. Most maquis species resprout vigorously after fire. The name of this
vegetation type varies with different Romance languages like the Corsican
(
machja
), French (
maquis
), Catalan (
maquia
) and Italian (
macchia
).
Matorral: Spanish word referring to shrubland (of any type). It can be of any
sort: short matorral, tall matorral, etc. In Spain, other names may be applied
depending on the dominant species; for example,
aulagar
(
Ulex
),
brezal
(
Erica
),
escobonal
or
piornal
(
Cytisus
),
jaral
(
Cistus
),
romeral
(
Rosmarinus
),
coscojar
(
Quercus
),
tomillar
(
Thymus
),
lentiscar
(
Pistacia
), etc. The word
matorral
(also
used in Chile, see
Chapter 6
) is equivalent to the Portuguese
mato
.
Garrigue: shrubland dominated by
Quercus coccifera
(broadleaf evergreen
and sclerophyllous shrub). Original name probably from the Occitan and
Catalan languages, currently used also in French. The Spanish name is
coscojar
and the Greek name
prinones.
However, in some eastern parts of the basin
(Israel)
Quercus coccifera
grows as a tree (sometimes named
Q. calliprinos
), and
the word garrigue may be used for a shrubland dominated by
Calicotome
villosa
, a summer deciduous thorny shrub (see also
phrygana
, below). Some
have traditionally linked the term garrigue to shrublands on calcareous sub-
strates and the term maquis to those on non-calcareous soils; however, this can
lead to confusion as the dominant garrigue shrub
Q. coccifera
does form
communities on non-calcareous soils.
Batha: short shrubland dominated by
Sarcopoterium spinosum
, small-leaved
dwarf shrubs typical of dry areas of the Near East. Fires are infrequent
due to fuel limitations. Name from the Hebrew and Arabic languages. It
may be structurally similar to the Spanish
tomillar
and the Greek phrygana
(see below).
Phrygana: Greek word referring to open shrublands, dominated by small-
leaved (often spiny or aromatic) and/or malacophyllous species (often with
seasonal dimorphic leaves). In Israel they use garrigue for these communities,
which can lead to some confusion since that term is restricted to a very different
vegetation in the western part of the basin (see above).
Tomillar: Spanish word for short shrubland (scrubland), often with low
cover, where
Thymus
is abundant, together with other small-leaved shrubs.
The Catalan word is
timoneda
. Structurally it may be very similar to the batha
and phrygana (see above), and fires are rare due to a low amount of fuel.
