Chaparral (vegetation type)
Chaparral is a type of vegetation found mainly in California and in the northern part of the Mexican Baja California Peninsula .
The name chaparral comes from the Spanish word chaparro , which means “low, evergreen oak ”. In turn, the root of the Spanish word is the Basque word txapar , which has the same meaning.
Chaparral thrives in regions with a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. The Mediterranean climate is often found on the western side of the continents, such as in central Chile and in western and southern Australia , as westerly winds from the sea bring rain here in winter. As in the Mediterranean maquis , hard deciduous trees with small, hard leaves are formed here, which limit evaporation in the dry summer. Chaparral often grows so dense that it becomes impenetrable to large animals and humans.
The plants of the chaparral are adapted to the environmental factor fire and periodic forest fires , the tree trunks are protected against smaller fires by thick bark and after a fire, seedlings germinate quickly in the nutrient-rich ash. However, due to the suppression of fires in the 20th century for decades, so much deadwood and other dry material has accumulated in large regions that lightning and other causes of fire can now trigger large fires. In addition, the range of hills has been discovered as a sought-after settlement region since the 1970s and has been sprawled in many places . That is why fires in regions that used to be deserted now endanger important property and, in individual cases, human lives.
The vegetation was also eponymous for the television series High Chaparral , which was filmed from 1967 to 1971. However, it plays in Arizona .
Web links
- California Chaparral Institute (English)