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Southwest Iberian Mediterranean Sclerophyllous And Mixed Forests
The Southwest Iberian Mediterranean sclerophyllous and mixed forests is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in southwestern Europe. It occupies the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, encompassing coastal lowlands and mountains in portions of Portugal and Spain. The ecoregion has a Mediterranean climate, moderated by the influence of the Atlantic Ocean. Summer temperatures tend to be cooler than other Mediterranean climate regions, and winter frosts are rare below 1500 metres. Geography The ecoregion occupies the coastal lowlands and hills in Portugal and southwestern Spain, including the lower basins of the Tagus, Guadiana, and Guadalquivir rivers. The city of Lisbon is at the mouth of the Tagus, and the cities of Seville and Cordoba lie in the valley of the Guadalquivir. Other cities in the ecoregion include Cadiz on the Atlantic, and Málaga on the Alboran Sea. The ecoregion is bounded on the east by the Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Alcornocales Natural Park
Los Alcornocales Natural Park (in Spanish, Parque natural de Los Alcornocales) is a natural park located in the south of Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia; it is shared between the Province of Cádiz and Málaga. The natural park occupies a territory spanning seventeen municipalities with a total population of about 380,000. ''Los Alcornocales'' means "the cork oak groves". Nearly all of the uninhabited land in the park is covered by Mediterranean native forest. While some of the land has been cleared for cattle ranches, much of the human activity in the park is devoted to exploitation of the forest's resources: hunting wild game, collecting wild mushrooms, and foraging for good specimens of tree heath. The tree heath (''Erica arborea'', called "brezos" in Spanish) is a small evergreen shrub, rarely more than two or three meters high; it is the source of the reddish briar-root wood used in making tobacco pipes, and its wood is excellent raw material for making ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe and Asia from the "New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ..." of the Americas in the European perception of Earth, the World. The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and North America, North and South America to the west. As one component of the interconnected World Ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south (other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arbutus Unedo
''Arbutus unedo'' is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean region and western Europe. The tree is well known for its fruits, which bear some resemblance to the strawberry — hence the common name "strawberry tree". However, it is not closely related to true strawberries of the genus ''Fragaria''. Its presence in Ireland also lends it the moniker "Irish strawberry tree", or cain, or cane apple (from the Irish name for the tree, ''caithne''), or sometimes " Killarney strawberry tree". The strawberry tree is the national tree of Italy because of its green leaves, its white flowers and its red berries, colors that recall the Italian flag. Taxonomy ''Arbutus unedo'' was one of the many species described by Carl Linnaeus in Volume One of his landmark 1753 work '' Species Plantarum'', giving it the name it still bears today. A study published in 2001 which analyzed ribosomal DNA from ''Arbutus'' and related genera found ''Arbutus'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurus Nobilis
''Laurus nobilis'' is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth) leaves. It is in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region and is used as bay leaf for seasoning in cooking. Its common names include bay tree (esp. United Kingdom), bay laurel, sweet bay, true laurel, Grecian laurel, or simply laurel. ''Laurus nobilis'' figures prominently in classical Greco-Roman culture. Worldwide, many other kinds of plants in diverse families are also called "bay" or "laurel", generally due to similarity of foliage or aroma to ''Laurus nobilis''. Description The laurel is an evergreen shrub or small tree, variable in size and sometimes reaching tall. The genus ''Laurus'' includes four accepted species, whose diagnostic key characters often overlap. The bay laurel is dioecious (unisexual), with male and female flowers on separate plants. Each flower is pale yellow-green, about diameter, and they are borne in pairs b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quercus Rotundifolia
''Quercus rotundifolia'', the holm oak or ballota oak, is an evergreen oak native to the western Mediterranean region, with the majority on the Iberian Peninsula and minor populations in Northwest Africa. The species was first described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1785. It is the typical species of the Iberian '' dehesa'' or ''montado'', where its sweet-astringent acorns are a source of food for livestock, particularly the Iberian pig. It has previously been described in the same species as ''Quercus ilex''. Its acorns have been used for human nourishment since the Neolithic era (7,000 BC). Description ''Quercus rotundifolia'' is a medium to large tree, usually in height, but can reach up to with a large, dense, rounded canopy. It has small, leathery, dark-green leaves with a glaucous, densely pubescent underside usually suborbicular to elliptical or lanceolate and are generally spiny to dentate on a younger tree. It has a semi-hemispheric cupule. It flowers from Febru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quercus Suber
''Quercus suber'', commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section ''Quercus'' sect. ''Cerris''. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring and as the cores of cricket balls. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. In the Mediterranean basin the tree is an ancient species with fossil remnants dating back to the Tertiary period. It endures drought and makes little demand on the soil quality and is regarded as a defence against desertification. Cork oak forests are home to a multitude of animal and plant species. Since cork is increasingly being displaced by other materials as a bottle cap, these forests are at risk as part of the cultural landscape and animal species such as the Iberian lynx are threatened with extinction. Description General appearance and bark The cork oak grows as an evergreen tree, reaching an average height of or in rare cases up to 25 m and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alboran Sea
The Alboran Sea (from Arabic , ''al-Baḥrān'') is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa (Spain on the north and Morocco and Algeria on the south). The Strait of Gibraltar, which lies at the west end of the Alboran Sea, connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean. Geography Its average depth is and maximum depth is . The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Alboran Sea as follows: ''On the West.'' The Eastern limit of the Strait of Gibraltar: A line joining from tip ( Europa Point) of '' Cap Gibraltar'' in Europe to the tip of the '' Península de Almina'' of Ceuta in Africa (). ''On the East.'' A line joining from ''Cabo de Gata'' in Andalusia in Europe to ''Cap Fegalo'', near Oran, Algeria in Africa (). Several small islands dot the sea, including the eponymous Isla de Alborán. Most, even those close to the African shore, belong to Spain. Geology The Alboran doma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Málaga
Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most populous in Spain. It lies on the Costa del Sol (''Coast of the Sun'') of the Mediterranean, about east of the Strait of Gibraltar and about north of Africa. Málaga's history spans about 2,800 years, making it one of the oldest cities in Europe and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. According to most scholars, it was founded about 770BC by the Phoenicians as ''Malaka'' ( xpu, 𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤀, ). From the 6th centuryBC the city was under the hegemony of Ancient Carthage, and from 218BC, it was ruled by the Roman Republic and then empire as ''Malaca'' (Latin). After the fall of the empire and the end of Visigothic rule, it was under Islamic rule as ''Mālaqah'' ( ar, مالقة) for 800 years, but in 1487, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Córdoba, Spain
Córdoba (; ),, Arabic: قُرطبة DIN: . or Cordova () in English, is a city in Andalusia, Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. It is the third most populated municipality in Andalusia and the 11th overall in the country. The city primarily lies on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Once a Roman settlement, it was taken over by the Visigoths, followed by the Muslim conquests in the eighth century and later becoming the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba. During these Muslim periods, Córdoba was transformed into a world leading center of education and learning, producing figures such as Maimonides, Averroes, Ibn Hazm, and Al-Zahrawi, and by the 10th century it had grown to be the second-largest city in Europe. Following the Christian conquest in 1236, it became part of the Crown of Castile. Córdoba is home to notable examples of Moorish architecture such as the Mezquita-Catedral, which was named as a UNE ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville has a municipal population of about 685,000 , and a metropolitan population of about 1.5 million, making it the largest city in Andalusia, the fourth-largest city in Spain and the 26th most populous municipality in the European Union. Its old town, with an area of , contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Alcázar palace complex, the Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies. The Seville harbour, located about from the Atlantic Ocean, is the only river port in Spain. The capital of Andalusia features hot temperatures in the summer, with daily maximums routinely above in July and August. Seville was founded as the Roman city of . Known as ''Ishbiliyah'' after the Islamic conquest in 711, Seville became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits with a population of around 2.7 million people, being the 11th-most populous urban area in the European Union.Demographia: World Urban Areas - demographia.com, 06.2021 About 3 million people live in the Lisbon metropolitan area, making it the third largest metropolitan area in the , after |
