The San Félix–San Ambrosio Islands temperate forests are a biome located on the small oceanic archipelago known as the

Desventuradas Islands The Desventuradas Islands (, , "Unfortunate Islands" or ''Islas de los Desventurados'', "Islands of the Unfortunate Ones") is a group of four small oceanic islands located off the coast of Chile, northwest of Santiago in the Pacific Ocean. They a ...

The islands form part of the ocean territory of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, and are located 850 km from the coast of Chile, and about 750 km north of the

Juan Fernández Islands The Juan Fernández Islands () are a sparsely inhabited series of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, reliant on tourism and fishing. Situated off the coast of Chile, they are composed of three main volcanic islands: Robinson Crusoe Island, R ...

. Due to their remote nature and difficult conditions, they have not been the subject of great study. The islands themselves are 20 km apart, and are likely volcanic in origin.

Climate

Only San Félix's climatic characteristics are known - the climate is

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, warm, moist, and oceanic. Temperatures range from 14.3 °C - 22.5 °C, with an average of 17.8 °C. Annual rainfall is 94.8 mm, occurring mainly in winter (May-August). San Ambrosio is more favorable for the retention of fog, resulting in microclimates that are more amenable to vegetation. There are no permanent sources of freshwater on the islands, and it is likely that there are only temporary waterways which only exist during precipitation.

Flora

Due to the aforementioned remoteness, vegetation is not well characterized; only descriptive works from sporadic visits are available. The arid conditions on San Félix are reflected in its low scrubland, where coverage is no more than 25% and is predominantly 20-30 cm high bushes with cushions. Plant cover is generally better on San Ambrosio, and in areas that benefit from fog moisture, some specimens of '' Sonchus laceratus'' (syn. ''Thamnoseris lacerata'') have been observed to grow as high as 5m. Plants

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the archipelago include the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus '' Nesocaryum'' and the species '' Atriplex chapinii'', ''Atriplex imbricata'' var. ''foliolosa'', ''

Chenopodium sancti-ambrosii ''Chenopodium'' is a genus of numerous species of perennial or annual herbaceous flowering plants known as the goosefoot, which occur almost anywhere in the world. It is placed in the family Amaranthaceae in the APG II system; older classificat ...

, Perityle tenuifolius, Sonchus laceratus, Nesocaryum stylosum, Spergularia manicata'', ''Sicyos baderoa'' var. ''ambrosianus'', '' Frankenia vidalii, Cristaria insularis,

Fuertesimalva sanambrosiana ''Fuertesimalva'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family Malvaceae, native to Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina. Most species in this genus were originally placed in '' Urocarpidium''. Species Species ...

, Plantago lundborgii, Eragrostis kuschelii'', and '' Parietaria feliciana''.Endemic plants of Desventurados Islands
World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP) checklist builder. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 1 February 2025.

External links

*
One Earth: San Félix-San Ambrosio Islands Temperate Forests

References

Ecoregions of Chile Ecoregions of South America * Neotropical ecoregions Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests {{Ecoregion-stub