Chaparrel


 * =**__Chaparral__**=

=Chaparral Climate=

In the winter the Chaparral climate, also known as the Mediterranean climate, is mild and moist, but not rainy. During the summer it is very hot and dry. The temperature is usually mild but it can get very hot or nearly freezing. The temperature range is between 30° and 100° F. This biome only gets about 10-17 inches of rain all year, and most of it comes in the winter. Because of the long period of dryness in the summer, only plants with hard leaves can survive, such as scrub oaks, chamiso shrubs, pines, cork and olive trees. Many leaves are also hairy so they can collect the moisture out of the air and use it. There are many fires in the chaparral because of the heat and dryness. Some plants have adapted even to the fires. Their seeds will lie dormant until there is a fire. Their seed casings will crack and the seed will sprout only then. Chaparrals exist in a mid-latitude climate and lie in a belt of prevailing westerly winds. This is why chaparrals tend to be on the west sides of continents. It is classified under Köppen's climate classification system as **Cs**. The **C** stands for warm temperature climates, where the average temperature of the coldest months is 64° F. The **s** stands for a dry season in the summer of the hemisphere it is in. Chaparrals can be found from 30° to 50° N and 30° to 40° S latitudes. The chaparral climate occurs in central and southern coast of California; the coast areas of the Mediterranean Sea; coastal western and southern Australia; the Chilean coast in South America, and the Cape Town region of South Africa.

climatogram - []

5 plant examples -
Blue Oak

The blue oak is native to the state of California on the western coast of North America. In its natural habitat it grows in the valleys and lower slopes of the Coast Ranges, the lower western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and the north slope of the San Gabriel Mountains. Blue oak covers about 3 million acres and is one of the largest ancient forest type in California. The Scottish biologist David Douglas first named the blue oak in 1831 for the bluish color of its leaves.  The habitat of blue oaks is open savanna to open woodlands with shrubby understories. At lower elevation it merges with annual grasslands, and at higher elevations it blends with chaparral, pinyon and juniper woodlands. The blue oak often grows among gray pines and other oaks species such as live oak, black oak and valley oak. //Blue oaks are adapted to drought and dry climates. They can survive temperatures above 100° F for several weeks at a time. Average maximum temperatures in July can range from 70° to 100° F. In January minimum temperatures can range from 10° to 35° F. Annual precipitation averages 20 to 40 inches and mostly falls in the form of rain. //  The blue oak is a short tree with an open canopy. The canopy is typically rounded with many crooked branches. The tree grows to average heights of 30 feet. In deep, moist soil it can grow up to 60 feet. It is a winter deciduous tree, but will sometimes shed its leaves during severely hot and dry years and go dormant. The litter of leaves and twigs decomposes into a soil high in nutrients and organic matter, holding water better than the surrounding areas. This contributes to high species diversity under the canopies. Leaves of the blue oak are simple and grow alternately on the twig. The leaves are about 1-3 inches long and have wavy, shallow and irregular margins, usually with 7 lobes. They have a blue-green color above, and yellow-green on the lower surface. A waxy coating covers the tough and thick leaves to help conserve water. Male flowers are yellow-green catkins. Female flowers are small and often solitary. These grow in the axis of the leaves on new twigs. Blue oaks flower from April through May. The acorns are long, thin, and gently tapering. They are 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches long with shallow caps. The acorns ripen in one year, and can germinate after one month, unlike other oak varieties, which germinate the following spring. From the beginning most growth is in the roots instead of the shoots. This allows it to tap into available water sources right away, and survive dry conditions. The acorns are palatable to livestock and wildlife. It is an important food source for black-tailed deer, game birds and rodents. At least a dozen species of songbirds also eat the acorns. The blue oak has an extensive root system. It can grow through cracks in rocks to depths of 80 feet to reach ground water. Its root system allows it to survive in fire prone and arid regions. Blue oaks reproduce both through seeds and vegetatively from burnt or cut stumps. The light colored bark is thick and helps reduce fire damage. The blue oak isn't used in manufacturing because of its crooked growth habit. But it is used as fence posts and fuel wood. Native Americans made meal from blue oak acorns, and used the acorn leachate for dying baskets. The wood was used to make bowls. Stands of blue oaks are typically 80 to 100 years old. Blue oaks are slow growers, and small plants can be 25 years old. Some blue oaks are as old as 200 to 500 years old. The number of blue oaks has decreased because there has been no natural regeneration. It is not considered endangered, however, because of its wide distribution across the region.

Coyote Brush  Strangely, Coyote brush is part of the Sunflower Family (Asteraceae), even thought it looks nothing like a sunflower. Coyote brush is a common chaparral plant in California and Oregon. It can be found all over California from San Diego County to Oregon, coastal sage scrub and chaparral, hillsides and in canyons below 2500 feet. But like the coyote of legends, it has some pretty ingenious tricks up its s(leaves) as far as survival is concerned. The name Baccharis comes from the Greek name "Bakkaris", for plants with fragrant roots. Pilularis refers to the sticky globs on its flower buds. Coyote brush is a wiry and woody perennial evergreen that looks like a bush. One of the tricks Coyote brush uses is to take on a different shape depending on where it lives. Shaped by salt spray and winds, it hugs low to the ground and forms a ground cover on dunes, ridges and plains. In protected places, like moist canyons and northwest slopes, it grows into tall, erect to mounded shrubs. Its numerous small and stiff grey-green leaves are jagged on the edges. Egg-shaped and from 0.5-1.0 inch long, the leaves have a waxy coating that reduces the amount of moisture lost to evaporation into the air. Best of all, the leaves are fire-retardant, meaning that they have a chemical makeup that reduces their ability to catch on fire. These evergreen leaves tend to crown the upper branches of Coyote brush. The leaves become fragrant and sticky with resinous oils on hot summer days. These oils are unappetizing and may protect the plant from being eaten. Coyote brush is dioecious, meaning that it produces male and female flowers on different plants. Blooming between August and December, the white fluffy female and yellowish male flowers grow on separate shrubs. The male flowers are stubbier, short, flattish, with a creamy white color. The yellow pollen on the male flowers smells like shaving soap. The female flowers are long, whitish green and glistening. The many flowering heads bloom in clusters on leafy branches. Seeds are small black nuts and hang off a fluffy tuft of hair called a pappus. From October to January the pappus catches the wind and blows away, like dandelions, helping Coyote brush spread its seeds.  Another trick for survival is Coyote shrub's large root system which extends many yards out from the plant to make use of any rain that might fall in its dry habitat. Branches grow from a crown that forms at the ground and spreads out. Because of the dense root crown, Coyote brush is able to survive and regenerates quickly from such things as fire, floods, or clearing. Coyote shrubs provide shelter for wildlife and nectar for bees, butterflies and other insects. It is a nurse plant for degraded soil. It is called a pioneer species because it is one of the first shrubs to appear after other plants have been removed by cultivation or fire.

Coast Miwok Indians used the heated leaves to reduce swelling, and some Native Indians used the wood from this bush to make arrow shafts and for building houses. Early pioneers called it "fuzzy wuzzy" because of its silky-haired seeds.

Luckily Coyote brush is very common because of its many tricks for survival, like adapting its growth pattern to the environment, having small wax-covered, drought-resistant, fire-retardant leaves that taste bad, and its large root system.

Mountain Mahogany



The California chaparral has hot summers with temperatures commonly above 100 ° F. The winters are about 50 ° to 60 ° F, but can very quickly drop to freezing. Occasionally there is snow in the winter, but it quickly melts off. Most of the rain that falls on the chaparral comes from storms over the Pacific Ocean. Fires are common in the chaparral. The Mountain Mahogany is a shrub or small deciduous tree that grows in the California chaparral. It can grow to be 12 ft. (4 m.) tall. The bark is grayish, scaly, and checkered. The twigs of this tree are rigged and the lateral twigs often spur-like, bright red -brown, and at first hairy, finally ashen or reddish gray and smooth. It's crown grows very wide, and it is a skinny wiry tree. Mahogany has lobed leaves, and single small dry fruits that have a feathery tails on the end. The leaves grow alternately on short stems, and are lobed, leathery, greenish-gray in color with straight veins. Soft fuzzy hairs cover both the top and bottom of the leaves. The flowers are small and grow singly or on fascicles at the end of short spurs. They flower from March to June. The main adaption is dwarfing (getting smaller to survive). It dwarfs because of severe drought, changes of climate, and the poor soil. This tree seems to be invincible because it cannot be killed by an axe (it cannot be killed by taking chops at it), drought or fire, so it has been given the name "hardtack". Fires usually kill the top of the tree but the trees don't burn as quickly as other shrubs in the chaparral. They sprouts new growth from their root crown and grow quickly after a fire. The mountain mahogany loses its leaves during the hot, dry season to conserve water. The Navahos use the twigs with their white flowers as prayer sticks. The handles of Navaho distaffs are made of this wood probably because it does not splinter easily. It is hard so the Navahos make dice from it. The Mountain Mahogany is not endangered. In fact it covers large areas. It can be found in Oregon, Baja California, the Channel Islands, South Dakota, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Mexico.

French Broom



French broom is found in the Pacific Northwest and Northern Canada on the American continent. It is native to the Mediterranean region and Azores Islands. It probably got its name because of the way the branches grow. They were actually cut and made into brooms at one time. In many places it is considered a weed. It spreads quickly and grows in dense stands that crowd out native plants. French broom is also used as erosion control on dunes, and along highways in the mid 1900s. Soon they escaped gardens and highways and invaded their environment. French broom is considered to be the most aggressive of the Brooms. A bushy plant, French broom can grow 5 to 8 feet tall, and has many twisted, single, green branches on it. The branches look almost bare because the leaves are very small, only about 1/2 of an inch. Small pea-like yellow flowers bloom along the stem in twos or threes between April and June. With each small flower are three green leaves which are about the same size as the flower. It grows its seed in hairy green pods, just like peas. French broom actually belongs to the pea family. The seeds and flowers of brooms are slightly toxic and can cause stomach cramps and indigestion. If you take Scotch broom flowers and soak them in water overnight, the flowers would lose all their color and the water becomes a yellow dye.

Fairy Duster



The Fairy Duster has pink-orange puff balls that can be up to 2 inches in diameter. These can bloom all year round but mostly in February through May. The Fairy Duster is a low shrub that usually grows 8 to 48 inches tall. The compound leaves are usually made up of four pairs of 1/4 inch leaves. Also known as False Mesquite,the Fairy Duster is a member of the Pea Family (Fabaceae) which includes Mimosas and Acacias. The seeds of the Fairy Duster look like dry pea pods. Eaten by many different chaparral and desert animals, the Fair Duster is also used as decorative shrubs in gardens and landscapes. The Fairy Duster is found in the sandy washes, slopes and mesas of the Sonoran Desert and the chaparral areas near San Diego County in California, USA.The Fairy Duster is a species in the genus Calliandra (stickpea) which contains 200 species and belongs to the family of the Fabaceae (Legume Family).

Manzanita



Mariposa manzanita is a native perennial shrub of the California Sierra chaparral. It is found in the foothills and montane regions of the Sierra Nevada and the northern Coast Ranges at elevations ranging from 250 to 6,500 feet. Growing on open hillsides and along the edges of central oak woodlands and ponderosa pine forests, it likes dry, well-drained, and sunny sites.

Mariposa manzanita grows in Mediterranean climate types with warm, dry summers and rainy winters. They can tolerate a fair amount of water for the first two years of growth, but will die if over-watered as mature plants. Mariposa manzanita is one of over 60 different species of manzanita. Its long, twisted, and smooth maroon branches stand out strikingly against its grey-green evergreen leaves. The young twigs are a pale green and are covered with downy hairs. The shrub usually ranges from 6 to 12 feet in height, but in favorable conditions, it can become a tree of over 20 feet, and develop a thick trunk. Most of their growth occurs in May and June and stops in mid-July when the weather becomes too hot. Flowers of the mariposa manzanita are heather-like in shape. They can be white or pink and hang in drooping open clusters, and flower from February to April. Mariposa manzanita regenerate by seeds. It fruits in early summer and the seeds ripen in the fall. The fruits are berry-like drupes, which stay on the branch all year round. They are white in early summer and turn a deep red in late summer. The seeds have a thick endocarp and will not germinate

unless burned by fire. Manzanita produce seeds every year. Animals that eat the seeds are the main source of dispersing them. The fruits are eaten by coyotes, foxes, and many species of birds. The foliage is not eaten by deer except during hard winters. Young seedlings are eaten however. Manzanita has been used to treat mild urinary tract infections, kidney inflammations, and water retention. It contains arbutin, which gives it disinfecting qualities. Natural periodic fires have burned separate portions of the chaparral throughout history. Since people started building houses in the chaparral, these fires have been suppressed. Manzanita cannot regenerate unless the seeds are scarified by fire and the thick endocarp is burned off. Many manzanita have now reached the end of their life cycles without newer generations replacing them, changing the character of the chaparral. Old growth manzanita also poses an even greater risk of giant, out of control fires because of the amount of leaf litter and dead wood on and around them. In trying to prevent fires, many communities have merely increased the risk of even greater fire damage. Some communities have started programs of controlled burns to reduce the dead wood and regenerate the manzanita chaparral.