Spanish Landscape Flora: Oceanic and Mediterranean Climates

Landscape Plants in Spain: Oceanic Climate Vegetation

Its vegetation characteristics include:

a) The Deciduous Forest

Consists of tall trees with straight, smooth trunks and large leaves. More features:

• Beech (Haya): Poorly tolerates heat but handles cold very well, requiring a lot of moisture. It prefers calcareous soils. Its hard, good-quality wood is used to make furniture and utensils.
• Oak (Roble): Does not support hot summers, has reduced tolerance to cold, and requires less moisture. It is slow-growing. Its timber is used to make furniture and boats.
• Chestnut (Castaño): Valued for both its fruit and wood.

Other minor species include ash, elm, etc. In the oceanic climate zone, a transition forest of marcescent Pyrenean oak occurs, where trees keep their leaves until the start of the new growth. Currently, large areas have been reforested with fast-growing trees of good economic use, such as pine or eucalyptus.

b) Heaths and Grasslands

• The Heath (Matorral): Dense shrub vegetation (abundant species include heather and gorse). Used as litter for fertilizer.
• The Meadows (Prados): Herbaceous vegetation that occupies large tracts of oceanic landscapes.

Landscape Plants in Spain: Mediterranean Climate Vegetation

Its characteristics include:

a) The Evergreen Forest

Composed of medium-height trees with non-straight, thick, rugged, and evergreen trunks. Their branches form globular and large canopies, providing significant shade. The most characteristic species are:

• Holm Oak (Encina): The most widespread and characteristic species in the Mediterranean climate. It is drought-resistant and suitable for any type of soil. Its wood was used to make wheels, and its fruit, the acorn, to feed cattle.
• Cork Oak (Alcornoque): Requires mild winters, soil moisture, and silica. Its wood is used for the manufacture of barrels and boats, and its bark for cork.
• Pine (Pino): Adapts to extreme cold, heat, dryness, and humidity, and all types of soils. Its presence has been extended by human intervention. Its wood is used for furniture, plywood, and pulp.

b) The Scrub

This is the result of the degradation of forests by human activity. It offers three types:

• Maquis (Macchia): Shrubland, dense and almost impenetrable (main species: rockrose, heather).
• Garrigue (Garriga): Formed by bushes and shrubs (thyme, rosemary).
• Steppe (Estepa): Low grass, mixed with thorny, low, and discontinuous shrubs, exposing poor soils (e.g., palmetto, thyme, asparagus).