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Garrigue
Garrigue or garigue ( ), also known as phrygana ( el, φρύγανα , n. pl.), is a type of low scrubland ecoregion and plant community in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. It is found on limestone soils in southern France and around the Mediterranean Basin, generally near the seacoast where the moderated Mediterranean climate provides annual summer drought. It is an anthropogenic degradation and succession form of former evergreen oak forests that existed until 4500 years BC. The term has also found its way into haute cuisine, suggestive of the resinous flavours of a garrigue shrubland. Habitat and vegetation UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre described garrigue as "discontinuous bushy associations of the Mediterranean calcareous plateaus, which have relatively alkaline soils. It is often composed of kermes oak, lavender, thyme, and white cistus. There may be a few isolated trees." Garrigue is discontinuous with widely spaced bush associat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garrigue 2007-09-20
Garrigue or garigue ( ), also known as phrygana ( el, φρύγανα , n. pl.), is a type of low scrubland ecoregion and plant community in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. It is found on limestone soils in southern France and around the Mediterranean Basin, generally near the seacoast where the moderated Mediterranean climate provides annual summer drought. It is an anthropogenic degradation and succession form of former evergreen oak forests that existed until 4500 years BC. The term has also found its way into haute cuisine, suggestive of the resinous flavours of a garrigue shrubland. Habitat and vegetation UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre described garrigue as "discontinuous bushy associations of the Mediterranean calcareous plateaus, which have relatively alkaline soils. It is often composed of kermes oak, lavender, thyme, and white cistus. There may be a few isolated trees." Garrigue is discontinuous with widely spaced bush associatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garrigue Herault
Garrigue or garigue ( ), also known as phrygana ( el, φρύγανα , n. pl.), is a type of low scrubland ecoregion and plant community in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. It is found on limestone soils in southern France and around the Mediterranean Basin, generally near the seacoast where the moderated Mediterranean climate provides annual summer drought. It is an anthropogenic degradation and succession form of former evergreen oak forests that existed until 4500 years BC. The term has also found its way into haute cuisine, suggestive of the resinous flavours of a garrigue shrubland. Habitat and vegetation UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre described garrigue as "discontinuous bushy associations of the Mediterranean calcareous plateaus, which have relatively alkaline soils. It is often composed of kermes oak, lavender, thyme, and white cistus. There may be a few isolated trees." Garrigue is discontinuous with widely spaced bush associatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kermes Oak
''Quercus coccifera'', the kermes oak, is an oak bush in the ''Ilex'' section of the genus. It is native to the Mediterranean region and Northern African Maghreb, south to north from Morocco to France and west to east from Portugal to Cyprus and Turkey, crossing Spain, Italy, Libya, Balkans, and Greece, including Crete. The Kermes Oak was historically important as the food plant of the '' Kermes'' scale insect, from which a red dye called crimson was obtained. The etymology of the specific name ''coccifera'' is related to the production of red cochineal (crimson) dye and derived from Latin coccum which was from Greek κόκκος, the kermes insect. The Latin -fera means 'bearer'. Description ''Quercus coccifera'' is usually a shrub less than high, rarely a small tree, reaching tall (a specimen recorded in Kouf, Libya) and in trunk diameter. It is evergreen, with spiny-serrated coriaceous leaves 1.5–4 cm long and 1–3 cm broad. The acorns are 2–3 c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It may be the mature vegetation type in a particular region and remain stable over time, or a transitional community that occurs temporarily as the result of a disturbance, such as fire. A stable state may be maintained by regular natural disturbance such as fire or browsing. Shrubland may be unsuitable for human habitation because of the danger of fire. The term was coined in 1903. Shrubland species generally show a wide range of adaptations to fire, such as heavy seed production, lignotubers, and fire-induced germination. Botanical structural form In botany and ecology a shrub is defined as a much-branched woody plant less than 8 m high and usually with many stems. Tall shrubs are mostly 2–8 m high, small shrubs 1–2 m high an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It may be the mature vegetation type in a particular region and remain stable over time, or a transitional community that occurs temporarily as the result of a disturbance, such as fire. A stable state may be maintained by regular natural disturbance such as fire or browsing. Shrubland may be unsuitable for human habitation because of the danger of fire. The term was coined in 1903. Shrubland species generally show a wide range of adaptations to fire, such as heavy seed production, lignotubers, and fire-induced germination. Botanical structural form In botany and ecology a shrub is defined as a much-branched woody plant less than 8 m high and usually with many stems. Tall shrubs are mostly 2–8 m high, small shrubs 1–2 m high and subsh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, And Scrub
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub is a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is generally characterized by dry summers and rainy winters, although in some areas rainfall may be uniform. Summers are typically hot in low-lying inland locations but can be cool near colder seas. Winters are typically mild to cool in low-lying locations but can be cold in inland and higher locations. All these ecoregions are highly distinctive, collectively harboring 10% of the Earth's plant species. Distribution The Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome mostly occurs in, but not limited to, the Mediterranean climate zones, in the mid-latitudes: *the Mediterranean Basin *the Chilean Matorral *the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California and the Baja California Peninsula *the Western Cape of South Africa *the southwest and southern Australia. The biome is not limited to the Mediterranean climate zone. It can also be present in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and warm to hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation. Geography The Mediterranean Basin covers portions of three continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia. It is distinct from the drainage basin, which extends much further south and north due to major rivers ending in the Mediterranean Sea, such as the Nile and Rhône. Conversely, the Mediterranean Basin includes regions not in the drainage basin. It has a varied and contrasting topography. The Mediterranean Region offers an ever-changing landscape of high mountains, rocky shores, impenetrable scrub, semi-arid steppes, coastal wetlands, sandy beaches and a myriad islands of various shapes and sizes dotted amidst the clear blue sea. Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mediterranean Climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the majority of Mediterranean-climate regions and countries, but remain highly dependent on proximity to the ocean, altitude and geographical location. This climate type's name is in reference to the coastal regions of the Mediterranean Sea within the Mediterranean Basin, where this climate type is most prevalent. The "original" Mediterranean zone is a massive area, its western region beginning with the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe and coastal regions of northern Morocco, extending eastwards across southern Europe, the Balkans, and coastal Northern Africa, before reaching a dead-end at the Levant region's coastline. Mediterranean climate zones are typically located along the western coasts of landmasses, between roughly 30 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quercus Ilex
''Quercus ilex'', the evergreen oak, holly oak or holm oak is a large evergreen oak native to the Mediterranean region. It is a member of the ''Ilex'' section of the genus, with acorns that mature in a single summer. Description An evergreen tree of large size, attaining in favourable places a height of , and developing in open situations a huge head of densely leafy branches as much across, the terminal portions of the branches usually pendulous in old trees. The trunk is sometimes over in girth. The young shoots are clothed with a close gray felt. The leaves are very variable in shape, most frequently narrowly oval or ovate-lanceolate, long, 1.2–2.5 cm wide, rounded or broadly tapered at the base, pointed, the margins sometimes entire, sometimes (especially on young trees) more or less remotely toothed. When quite young, both surfaces are clothed with whitish down, which soon falls away entirely from the upper surface leaving it a dark glossy green; on the lowe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juniper
Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa, throughout parts of western, central and southern Asia, east to eastern Tibet in the Old World, and in the mountains of Central America. The highest-known juniper forest occurs at an altitude of in southeastern Tibet and the northern Himalayas, creating one of the highest tree lines on earth. Description Junipers vary in size and shape from tall trees, tall, to columnar or low-spreading shrubs with long, trailing branches. They are evergreen with needle-like and/or scale-like leaves. They can be either monoecious or dioecious. The female seed cones are very distinctive, with fleshy, fruit-like coalescing scales which fuse together to form a berrylike structure ( galbulus), long, with one to 12 u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cistus
''Cistus'' (from the Greek ''kistos'') is a genus of flowering plants in the rockrose family Cistaceae, containing about 20 species (Ellul ''et al.'' 2002). They are perennial shrubs found on dry or rocky soils throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal through to the Middle East, and also on the Canary Islands. ''Cistus'', with its many hybrids and cultivars, is commonly encountered as a garden flower. The common name rockrose (rock rose in the UK) is applied to the species, a name also shared by the related genera '' Halimium'', '' Helianthemum'' and '' Tuberaria'', all in the family Cistaceae. The common name ''gum cistus'' is applied to resin-bearing species, especially ''C. ladanifer''. Description The leaves are evergreen, opposite, simple, usually slightly rough-surfaced, 2–8 cm long. In a few species (notably ''C. ladanifer''), the leaves are coated with a highly aromatic resin called labdanum. They have showy 5-petaled flowers ranging from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thyme
Thyme () is the herb (dried aerial parts) of some members of the genus ''Thymus'' of aromatic perennial evergreen herbs in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are relatives of the oregano genus ''Origanum'', with both plants being mostly indigenous to the Mediterranean region. Thymes have culinary, medicinal, and ornamental uses, and the species most commonly cultivated and used for culinary purposes is ''Thymus vulgaris''. History Thyme is indigenous to the Mediterranean region. Wild thyme grows in the Levant, where it might have been first cultivated. Ancient Egyptians used thyme for embalming. The ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing it was a source of courage. The spread of thyme throughout Europe was thought to be due to the Romans, as they used it to purify their rooms and to "give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs". In the European Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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