Ecosystems

Plants of the Mediterranean scrub

The Mediterranean scrub may be divided into tall scrub, with well-developed trees that can provide shade and humidity to the undergrowth, and short scrub, made up of impassable shrubs and bushes, called garrigue.
This biome contains evergreen broad-leaved and aciform trees, including: holm oaks, arbutuses, olive trees, laurels, carob trees, pine trees, junipers, cypresses and others. It also includes shrubby plants, for instance rock roses, mastic trees, myrtle and rosemary. The most typical plants are those that can stay in a dormant, i.e. resting, state during the hot summer, to sprout and grow in colder autumn temperatures. Autumn germination can take place only after a mild wet season, during which the seed becomes “acclimatised”. Later on, the seed will bloom and bear fruit in the warmth of springtime. A different strategy is implemented by geophytic or bulb plants: these perennial plants resist the summer heat through their underground bulbs and tubers, as many liliaceous plants do.
Shrubs may be evergreen or shed their leaves during the driest seasons. Many plants contain scented aromatic substances which deter animals who feed on them and, in some instances (for instance the Californian artemisia) these substances prevent competing plants from sprouting and growing.