Scrubland

From Freepedia

Scrubland is plant community characterized by scrub vegetation. "Scrub" consists of low shrubs, mixed with grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Scrublands are sometimes known as heathlands. Scrublands may be either naturally occurring or the result of human activity. They may the mature vegetation type in a particular region and remain stable over time, or a transitional community that comes occurs temporarily as the result of a disturbance, such as a major fire.

Xeric scrublands or desert scrublands occur in the world's Deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregions, or in areas of fast-draining sandy soils in more humid regions. These scrublands are characterized by plants with adaptations to the dry climate, which include small leaves to limit water loss, thorns to protect them from grazing animals, and succulent leaves or stems, storage organs to store water, and long taproots to reach groundwater.

Mediterranean scrublands occur naturally in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub biome, located in the five Mediterranean climate regions of the world. Scrublands are most common near the seacoast, and are often adapted to wind and salt air off the ocean. Low, soft-leaved scrublands around the Mediterranean Basin are known as garrigue in France, phrygana in Greece, tomillares in Spain, and batha in Israel. Northern coastal scrub and coastal sage scrub occur along the California coast; strandveld in the Western Cape of South Africa; coastal matorral in the central Chile, and sand-heath and kwongan in Southwest Australia.