Evergreen-hardwood forest, also termed sclerophyll forest, consists of low trees with small, hard, leathery leaves. Typically the trees are low-branched and gnarled, with thick bark. The formation class includes much woodland, an open forest in which the canopy coverage is only 25 to 60%. Also included are extensive areas of scrub, & plant formation type consisting of shrubs having a canopy coverage of perhaps 50%. The tress and shrubs are evergreen, their thickened leaves being retained despite a severe annual drought. There is little stratification in the sclerophyll forest and scrub, although there may be spring herb layer.
Evergreen hardwood forest is closely associated with the dry-summer subtropical (Mediterranean) climate and hence quite narrowly limited in geographical extent-primarily to west coasts between 30° and 40° or 45° latitude. In the Mediterranean lands the hardwood forest forms a narrow peripheral coastal belt. Here the woodland consists of such trees as cork oak (Quercus suber), live oak (Quercus ilex), Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), stone pine (Pinus pinea), and olive (Olea europaea). What may have once been luxuriant forests of such trees were greatly disturbed by man over the centuries and reduced to woodland or entirely destroyed. Instead, large areas consist of dense scrub termed maquis, which includes many species, some of them, very spiny. The other northern hemisphere region of evergreen hardwood forest is that of the California Coast Ranges. Some of this is a woodland composed largely of the live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and white oak (Quercus lobata).
Much of the vegetation is a scrub or dwarf forest known as chaparral, which varies in composition with elevation and exposure. Chaparral may contain wild lilac, manzanita, mountain mahogany, poison oak, and live oak. The evergreen hardwood forest is represented in central Chile and in the Cape region of South Africa by a maquislike scrub vegetation which is, however of quite different flora from those of the northern hemisphere. Important areas of sclerophyll forest, woodland and scrub are found in southwest, south-central and southeast Australia, including several species of eucalyptus and acacias.
The dry-summer subtropical (Mediterranean) climate of the evergreen hardwood forest is one of great environmental stress because the severe drought season coincides with high air temperatures. Thus a large water deficit occurs in the summer. The wet, mild winter is, by contrast, highly favorable to rapid plant growth. The pedogenic regime is one associated with semi-aridity, namely calcification and results in soils with some precipitated calcium carbonate in the B horizon. Much of the area of the evergreen hardwood forest, woodland, and scrub is classified as having reddish-chestnut, reddish-prairie and reddish-brown soil, and in the Mediterranean lands, terra rossa.
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