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Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund, is characterized by dry summers and rainy winters. Summers are typically hot in low-lying inland locations but can be cool near colder seas. Winters are typically mild to cool in low-lying locations but can be cold in inland and higher locations. The Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome occurs in the world's five Mediterranean climate zones, on the west coast of continents in the mid-latitudes:〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub Ecoregions ) (included verbatim material: licensed under (CC-BY-SA-3.0 ))〕 *the Mediterranean Basin *the Chilean Matorral *the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California and the Baja California Peninsula *the Western Cape of South Africa *the Southwest Australia corner area ==Diversity== These regions are home to a tremendous diversity of habitats and species. Vegetation types range from forests to woodlands, savannas, shrublands, and grasslands; "mosaic habitat" landscapes are common, where differing vegetation types are interleaved with one another in complex patterns created by variations in soil, topography, exposure to wind and sun, and fire history. Much of the woody vegetation in Mediterranean-climate regions is sclerophyll, which means 'hard-leaved' in Greek. Sclerophyll vegetation generally has small, dark leaves covered with a waxy outer layer to retain moisture in the dry summer months. All these ecoregions are highly distinctive, collectively harboring 10% of the Earth's plant species. Phytogeographers consider the fynbos (South Africa) as a separate floral kingdom because 68% of the 8,600 vascular plant species crowded into its are endemic and highly distinctive at several taxonomic levels.〔 This is equivalent to about 40% of the plant species of the United States and Canada combined, found within an area the size of the state of Maine. The fynbos and Southwest Australia shrublands have flora that are significantly more diverse than the other ecoregions, although any Mediterranean shrubland is still rich in species and endemics relative to other non-forest ecoregions.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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