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Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

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Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests

Biome

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

Biogeographic realm

Palearctic

Evergreen oaks on dry slopes above a summer stream pool at Ribeira da Safareja, Portugal.

Region photo - Pedro Miguel F.A Patricio / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0; attribution required.

Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests

The Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests blanket the interior valleys and plateaus of the Iberian Peninsula, lying mostly in Spain with portions of eastern Portugal and spanning the basins of major rivers including the Douro, Tagus, Guadiana, Guadalquivir, and Ebro. Holm oak and cork oak woodlands were historically predominant, and today the landscape is a mosaic of evergreen sclerophyll forest, maquis shrubland with genera such as Erica, Phillyrea, Myrtus, and Juniperus, and stands of stone, maritime, and Aleppo pine, with wild olive and carob in warmer southern areas. The climate is Mediterranean, with hot, dry summers and relatively mild, subhumid winters that turn more continental and colder across the northern plateau. Much of the region survives as dehesas in Spain and montados in Portugal, traditional agrosilvopastoral woodlands of scattered cork and holm oaks that shelter endangered wildlife including the Iberian lynx, Spanish imperial eagle, and great bustard alongside grazing livestock and cork production. For gardeners, several of its native plants, among them the carob, wild olive, and shrubs such as myrtle (Myrtus), translate well into warm, drought-tolerant Mediterranean plantings.

RESOLVE 793

Palearctic

114,943 sq mi

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

Landscape type

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

Plant region

Palearctic

Region footprint

114,943 sq mi

Habitat pressure

Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)

Source & care

Plants that can handle this region

A climate-fit shortlist from Plotwright's catalog. Start with the reliable fits, then use each plant page to check light, water, soil, mature size, and local availability.

Showing 554 of 554 climate-fit plants for this region.

Reliable climate fits

Good bets for now and later

554 plants

These plants fit the region today and stay within range under the mid-century projection. Start here when you want choices with the least climate regret.

Yucca filamentosa

Adam's needle

A virtually stemless, broadleaf-evergreen native of central and eastern North America: a basal rosette of rigid, sword-shaped, spine-tipped leaves up to 30 inches long, fringed along the margins with the curly white threads that give the species its name. In early summer a flowering stalk shoots from the center to 5 to 8 feet, carrying nodding, bell-shaped, creamy-white flowers. Tough enough for poor sandy soil, heat, drought, and salt spray, it earns its keep as architectural structure in dry and seaside gardens.

Shrub

Full sun / Part shade

A tall, summer-growing cormous perennial from across sub-Saharan Africa, grown for arching spikes of large, hooded, orange-to-red-and-yellow flowers in summer over fans of sword-shaped leaves. This is the widespread wild African gladiolus and a key ancestor of the big garden gladioli. Unlike the winter-growing Cape bulbs, it is a SUMMER-GROWING corm: plant in spring, grow and flower through summer, then it dies back to a dormant corm for winter. It wants full sun, well-drained soil, and summer moisture, and is one of the hardier species gladioli - surviving to about USDA zone 7 with a deep winter mulch or by lifting the corms in cold-winter areas. The corms are toxic and irritant if eaten and have been used in traditional medicine, never as food. In the wild the hooded flowers are pollinated by sunbirds and long-tongued insects.

A bold, clump-forming evergreen perennial from South Africa, grown for big rounded umbels of trumpet-shaped blue (or white) flowers held on tall bare stalks above arching, strap-shaped leaves in mid-to-late summer. It is widely sold as "lily of the Nile," but that is a misnomer - the plant is South African (the Cape provinces and KwaZulu-Natal), not from the Nile. Spectacular and easy in warm climates, this evergreen Agapanthus is frost-tender, so in cold-winter areas it is grown in a container and overwintered under cover. The RHS has given several Agapanthus praecox forms its Award of Garden Merit and rates this evergreen species half-hardy (H3 - needs winter protection).

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

A tall, bold warm-season annual from Mexico and Guatemala (the "African" name is a misnomer of its European garden history) grown for large, fully double, pompon-like flowerheads in saturated yellow, gold, and orange over strongly aromatic, finely divided foliage. Plants reach 1 to 4 feet and bloom from early summer to frost in full sun. The petals are edible and used as a culinary garnish and natural dye, and the flowers are the iconic "flor de muerto" of Mexican Day of the Dead. Despite the wide listed zone range it is frost-tender and grown for a single warm season.

Annual

Full sun / Part shade

A native eastern + central North American thicket-forming shrub producing arching thorny canes + clusters of large sweet black berries in mid-to-late summer. Among the most important wildlife fruit producers in eastern forests - birds, mammals, + insects all depend on the fruit. Like raspberry, biennial-caned (primocane year 1, fruits in year 2 as floricane, then dies back). Spreads via root suckers + tip-rooting cane tips; manage with annual pruning.

Pachysandra procumbens

Allegheny spurge

A native Southeastern North American semi-evergreen woodland groundcover (Pachysandra procumbens), prized for its blue-green to bronze mottled leaves and fragrant white-to-pinkish bottlebrush flower spikes that open at ground level in late winter to early spring. Unlike the widely planted invasive Asian Pachysandra terminalis, this native spreads slowly by rhizomes into well-behaved clumping colonies, making it a low, restrained groundcover for shaded native plantings.

Hippeastrum x hybridum

Amaryllis

Hippeastrum x hybridum is a complex garden hybrid derived from six or more wild Hippeastrum species native to tropical and subtropical South America, developed through intensive breeding since the late 18th century and now the dominant "amaryllis" sold worldwide as a holiday bulb. It produces spectacular trumpet-shaped flowers - 5 to 8 inches across - on stout leafless scapes in red, pink, white, orange, salmon, or bicolour, making it one of the most dramatic winter-flowering houseplants available. The honest catch is toxicity: the entire plant, especially the bulb, contains lycorine and related alkaloids at concentrations that cause vomiting, salivation, tremors, and hypotension in pets and children, so it must be placed out of reach and handled with care.

Perennial

Part sun / Part shade

A medium-to-large native shade tree of central and eastern North America, reaching 50 to 80 feet with an ovate-rounded crown and large, asymmetric heart-shaped leaves. In June it carries pale-yellow, intensely fragrant flowers on pendulous cymes - each cluster hung from a distinctive strap-like leafy bract - that ripen into pea-sized nutlets. The fragrant June bloom is a premier nectar source: Missouri Botanical Garden lists it as attracting bees and butterflies, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center flags it as having special value to both native and honey bees.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is a loose, open, arching deciduous shrub of the southeastern and south-central United States, grown almost entirely for one spectacular autumn trick. Through summer it is a quiet green background plant, carrying small clusters of pink-to-lilac flowers tucked into the leaf axils. Then, from late summer into fall, those clusters ripen into tight whorls of vivid magenta-purple berries that wrap right around the stems at every leaf joint, so the arching branches look strung with beads. Songbirds strip them through fall and early winter. It is an easy, fast-growing, forgiving native that asks for little: full sun to part shade, ordinary well-drained soil, and room to arch. Site it where the fall berry show can be seen, because in leaf and flower it is plain, and in fruit it is one of the most distinctive shrubs you can grow.

Shrub

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Once the dominant canopy hardwood of the eastern United States forest - an estimated four billion trees, prized for fast growth, rot-resistant timber, and an enormous annual crop of sweet edible nuts that fed people, livestock, and wildlife alike. In the early 1900s an introduced Asian fungus, chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica), swept through and functionally destroyed it: by the 1950s the species was effectively extinct as a mature forest tree. Surviving root systems still send up sprouts from old stumps, but the blight almost always girdles and kills them before they can grow large enough to flower and reproduce. The honest reality for a gardener is that you cannot reliably grow a mature wild-type American chestnut today. The realistic paths are blight-resistant backcross hybrids from The American Chestnut Foundation or transgenic blight-tolerant lines still being deployed - not a pure wild seedling, which the blight will almost certainly kill.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

A fast, suckering native shrub of streambanks and moist thickets across eastern North America, grown for huge flat-topped cymes of tiny lemon-scented white flowers in early summer and the clusters of dark elderberry drupes that follow. Spreads by root suckers into naturalized colonies 5 to 12 feet tall and wide; the flowers feed butterflies and the showy fruit feeds birds. The raw berries are not eaten fresh - they are cooked into jelly, pie, and wine.

Shrub

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

The American elm is the great vase-shaped shade tree that once arched over Main Streets and town commons across eastern North America - a fast, extremely cold-hardy deciduous tree of 60 to 80 feet whose upright trunk divides into a fountain of high, spreading limbs that meet overhead to form a living cathedral ceiling. That iconic form, and the species' tolerance of wet soil and tough urban conditions, made it the default American street tree for a century. Then Dutch elm disease (DED) - an introduced fungal disease carried by elm bark beetles - swept through in the 20th century and killed the vast majority of mature street and shade elms across the continent. The honest reality for a gardener today is blunt: do not plant the unselected wild species expecting it to survive. If you want the American-elm form, plant a DED-tolerant cultivar bred and selected for resistance - 'Princeton', 'Valley Forge', 'New Harmony', or 'Jefferson' - and say so plainly. Where it does grow, it is fast, hardy to USDA zone 3, and remarkably forgiving of wet ground and city stress.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

American germander, also called wood sage, is a widespread North American native perennial in the mint family that runs steadily underground on creeping rhizomes. From early to midsummer it sends up erect, softly hairy stems topped with one-sided spikes of pale pink-to-lavender flowers, each with the distinctive deeply lobed lower lip that gives the germanders their look and makes a generous landing platform for bees. It is a plant of moist open ground - wet meadows, streambanks, ditches, and the edges of thickets - across most of the contiguous United States into southern Canada, which tells you exactly what it wants: sun and a soil that does not dry out. The honest caveat is its vigor: those same rhizomes that fill a bank or a rain garden so readily will also colonize a tidy perennial border and crowd politer neighbors. Site it where it can run, or give it a root barrier, and it rewards you with a long, dependable bee-friendly bloom rather than a maintenance fight.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

A rounded, multi-stemmed deciduous shrub native across eastern and central North America, grown for its edible nuts and its season-opening catkins. Showy 2-3 inch yellowish-brown male catkins dangle from bare branches in early spring before the ovate, double-toothed leaves emerge; small egg-shaped edible nuts ripen inside leafy husks by mid- to late summer. Easygoing in average soil and tolerant of clay and black walnut, it suckers into thickets that screen and shelter wildlife.

Shrub

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

The only native U.S. holly with both spiny green leaves and bright red berries - an upright, pyramidal, broadleaf evergreen tree that slowly matures to 15 to 30 feet in cultivation (to 50 feet in the wild). Thick, leathery, deep green leaves bear spiny marginal teeth, and pollinated female trees carry showy red-to-orange drupes that ripen in fall and persist through winter as bird food. This is the classic "Christmas holly" of wreaths and decorations.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

A small-to-medium understory tree of dry, rocky eastern-North-American woods, named for its drooping clusters of papery, sac-like seed pods that resemble the fruit of hops. The birch-like, sharply-serrated leaves turn an undistinguished yellow in fall, and reddish-brown male catkins persist on the bare branches through winter. Also called ironwood for its extremely hard, dense wood; tough, low-maintenance, and drought-tolerant once established.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

A tough, medium-sized native tree of the eastern and midwestern United States, grown as much for its showy edible orange fruit as for its distinctive thick, dark gray bark broken into rectangular blocks. Small urn-shaped white-to-greenish-yellow flowers open in May and June, and the sweet fruit ripens after frost. Largely dioecious - a female tree needs a male pollinizer nearby to set fruit - and notably drought- and walnut-tolerant once established.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

A small native deciduous tree (or thicket-forming, suckering shrub) of eastern and central North America, grown for clouds of fragrant white 5-petaled flowers that open in March before the leaves and for the edible red plums that follow in early summer. It forms a broad, spreading crown with attractive dark reddish-brown twigs that sometimes carry thorny lateral branchlets. A documented larval host for swallowtails and other butterflies, with flowers of special value to native, bumble, and honey bees.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

American red raspberry

A native bramble (cane) producing red aromatic edible fruit in summer or fall (depending on summer-bearing vs everbearing cultivar). Self-pollinating; spreads vigorously by root suckers + tip-rooting canes. NC State documents extensive Lepidoptera + small mammal + bird wildlife value alongside the edible fruit role. Site where the spreading habit is welcome - naturalized colonies form in sun-exposed open ground.

Liquidambar styraciflua

American sweetgum

A native canopy tree of eastern North American forests with iconic star-shaped 5-lobed leaves displaying outstanding red-purple-orange fall color, distinctive corky wing-bark on twigs, and spiky round seed pods that famously litter lawns ("gumballs"). The seed pods are the design-defining drawback - Liquidambar is rarely planted in formal landscapes for this reason. Choose seedless cultivars ('Rotundiloba', 'Slender Silhouette') for residential planting.

Platanus occidentalis

American sycamore

A massive native deciduous canopy tree of eastern North American floodplain forests producing distinctive mottled white-tan-gray exfoliating bark (the design-defining trait - sycamore bark looks like military camouflage), large palmate maple-like leaves, and persistent spherical seed balls. Among the largest deciduous trees in eastern North America - old-growth specimens exceed 150 feet tall + 10 feet trunk diameter. Site only where massive scale is acceptable.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

Amur maple (Acer ginnala, accepted by Kew's Plants of the World Online as Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala) is a small, fast-growing deciduous tree or large multi-stemmed shrub from northeastern Asia - the Russian Far East, northeastern China, and Korea. At 15 to 20 feet it fits where a full-size maple cannot, and it earns that place with three seasons of interest: fragrant greenish-yellow flowers in spring, which is an unusual scent for a maple and an early nectar source for bees; small glossy three-lobed leaves through summer; and reliable, often brilliant red-to-orange fall color that arrives early. It is also one of the hardiest maples, tolerant of cold, wind, dry soil, and a wide range of pH. The honest catch, and it is a serious one for North American gardeners, is that it self-sows prolifically and has escaped cultivation to become invasive across parts of the US Midwest and Northeast, where its shade-tolerant seedlings crowd native shrubs and understory trees in open woods, savannas, and prairies. Several states list it as invasive or a noxious weed. Check your local invasive-species list before planting, and be prepared to remove seedlings if you do.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Dierama pulcherrimum, angel's fishing rod, is an arching, more-or-less evergreen cormous perennial in the iris family (Iridaceae), endemic to the open summer-rainfall grasslands of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It forms grassy tufts of long, narrow leaves from which tall, wiry, arching flower stems rise to about 4.9 feet (occasionally to 5.9 feet), each hung with pendulous, bell-shaped rosy-pink to purple flowers in summer - the namesake "fishing rod" silhouette over a pond or in a gravel garden. It is the load-bearing caution to note that this is only a borderline-hardy plant: RHS rates it H4 (hardy to roughly 14 to 23°F / USDA ~8b-9), so in colder zones it needs a sheltered, sunny, sharply drained spot, a winter mulch, or container/glasshouse protection, and it resents disturbance once established. It is not recorded as toxic - though it is grown purely as an ornamental and is not a food plant, so treat it as inedible. It is well-behaved (Least Concern in the wild, no recorded weediness) and suits borders, pond margins, and containers in mild-temperate gardens.

An upright, clump-forming perennial of the mint family native to the upper Midwest, Great Plains, and into central Canada, named for its anise-scented foliage. From June through September it carries dense terminal spikes of lavender-to-purple two-lipped flowers above square stems and opposite, toothed leaves. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center flags it as a nectar source with special value to native bees, bumble bees, and honey bees, and it also draws butterflies and hummingbirds.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Planting collections

Finished planting recipes where every member can handle this region's climate range. The fit badge uses the collection's most sensitive plant, so a resilient collection is a safer starting point than any single standout.

Annabelle hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle') showing large white ball-shaped flower clusters on a rounded deciduous shrub.

Coral bells (Heuchera 'Marmalade') showing a low mound of ruffled coppery-orange foliage characteristic of the Heuchera villosa-derived hybrids.

Climate-resilient · 2 plants

Bright shade foundation

A part-shade planting with shrub structure and low foliage contrast.

Annabelle hydrangea

Coral bells

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) mature clump in the green growing season, its upright vase-shaped habit topped by the airy, diffuse open panicles diagnostic of the species.

Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) clumps in a garden bed, showing the species' upright, fine-textured blue-green vase-shaped growing-season habit.

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) mature clump in flower, showing its stout upright reddish stems, broad opposite leaves, and pink-mauve flower umbels with young green pods.

A full clump of black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldsturm') in a garden bed, showing the dense mounded foliage base topped with golden, dark-centered daisies on branching stems.

Climate-resilient · 8 plants

Climate-resilient natives for warming zones (eastern NA)

A pollinator-supporting palette of eastern North American natives with broad hardiness ranges and wide native distributions. Built for gardeners who want a planting that can handle warming zones without giving up wildlife value.

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) showing dense needle-like aromatic foliage on woody branches.

Garden sage (Salvia officinalis) showing gray-green velvety foliage + spike of lavender summer flowers.

Oregano (Origanum vulgare) showing spreading mat of small aromatic leaves + pink-white flower clusters.

Climate-resilient · 6 plants

Mediterranean drought-tolerant edible

A low-water edible palette of culinary herbs + a hardy grape for hot dry sunny sites. Mediterranean-origin plants thrive on neglect; their primary failure mode is overwatering, not underwatering.

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) in bloom, showing pinkish-purple ray petals around a brown-domed central cone on an erect stem.

Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) clump in an open meadow, its several upright square stems each topped by a ragged lavender flower head over toothed mint-family foliage.

Climate-resilient · 9 plants

Native pollinator border (eastern US)

A continuous-bloom native pollinator strip for eastern North America. Covers spring through frost with host + nectar plants spanning monarchs, native bees, hummingbirds, and specialist Lepidoptera. Little bluestem provides the matrix grass + Hesperiidae host.

Woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) showing five-petaled pale lavender-blue flowers on slender erect stems above a low spreading mat of foliage.

Wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) whole plant in rocky-ledge habitat, the airy blue-green compound foliage hung with nodding red-and-yellow spurred flowers.

Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) showing characteristic frothy white spring flower spikes above heart-shaped foliage.

Climate-resilient · 6 plants

Part-shade woodland edge

A part-shade / bright-shade planting for morning sun or dappled light - eastern North American woodland-edge natives with spring bloom, season-long foliage, and a fern + shrub structure.

Climate-resilient · 4 plants

Sunny pollinator border

A durable sunny border with summer bloom, seedheads, and upright winter texture.

Starter kits for this region

Generated from catalog plants that already pass this region's climate fit gate, with native matches sorted first when the catalog has enough coverage.

Sunny pollinator border

A sunny, wildlife-forward planting assembled from plants that pass this region fit gate.

Native fit: 0/6

Climate resilient: 6/6

Wildlife links: 17

Host/specialist links: 4

Forage/pollination links: 20

Shelter links: 0

Adam's needle - Climate-resilient African gladiolus - Climate-resilient African lily - Climate-resilient African marigold - Climate-resilient Allegheny blackberry - Climate-resilient American basswood - Climate-resilient

Shade-edge planting

A softer edge kit for woodland margins, porches, and mixed-light garden edges.

Native fit: 0/6

Climate resilient: 6/6

Wildlife links: 12

Host/specialist links: 2

Forage/pollination links: 15

Shelter links: 0

Adam's needle - Climate-resilient African lily - Climate-resilient African marigold - Climate-resilient Allegheny blackberry - Climate-resilient Allegheny spurge - Climate-resilient Amaryllis - Climate-resilient

Resilient shrub layer

A woody structure layer led by plants that fit both current and projected regional conditions.

Native fit: 0/6

Climate resilient: 6/6

Wildlife links: 21

Host/specialist links: 4

Forage/pollination links: 26

Shelter links: 3

Adam's needle - Climate-resilient Allegheny blackberry - Climate-resilient American basswood - Climate-resilient American beautyberry - Climate-resilient American chestnut - Climate-resilient American elderberry - Climate-resilient

Similar planting regions

Browse other regions in the same biome. Their plant lists can suggest species and combinations worth comparing.

Cape Sounion coastal scrub and rocky Aegean headland in Attica, Greece.

RESOLVE 785 - Palearctic

Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests

The Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests ring the Aegean Sea, spanning most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands, the western coast of Turkey, and reaching into southeastern North Macedonia and southwestern Bulgaria. Its vegetation is classic Mediterranean: dense maquis shrubland of holm oak, strawberry tree, and bay laurel, extensive pine forests of Calabrian (Turkish) pine, Aleppo pine, and stone pine, with sweet chestnut and oriental beech on cooler northern slopes. The climate is Mediterranean, with mild winters and dry summers. The ecoregion's flagship is the oriental sweetgum (Liquidambar orientalis), endemic to a limited area of southwestern Turkey and the Greek island of Rhodes, and much of the original habitat has been heavily degraded by human activity dating back to ancient times. For gardeners drawn to drought-tolerant Mediterranean planting, native genera such as Arbutus (strawberry tree), Laurus (bay laurel), and the pines offer ornamental, climate-suited choices.

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

RESOLVE 786 - Palearctic

Anatolian conifer and deciduous mixed forests

The Anatolian conifer and deciduous mixed forests cover the mountains and plateaus of southwestern Anatolia in Turkey, a transitional zone where Mediterranean conditions grade into increasingly continental climate moving from west to east. Its forests are a mosaic of pines and deciduous broadleaf trees: Turkish pine (Pinus brutia) holds the western foothills and inland depressions, while the emblematic Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra ssp. pallasiana) dominates the drier east and higher elevations, mixing with oaks (Quercus cerris, Q. pubescens, Q. robur, Q. frainetto), sweet chestnut, Oriental beech, and juniper. The climate is broadly Mediterranean, with hot dry summers and rainy winters and annual precipitation ranging roughly 400 to 600 mm. The region shelters brown bears, grey wolves, Saker falcons, and the critically endangered long-legged wood frog, and its wetlands are vital for migratory waterfowl such as Dalmatian pelicans and white-headed ducks; it is classified as critical or endangered, with only a small fraction of its area protected. For gardeners, several plants native here are familiar ornamentals, including the cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) and sweet chestnut.

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

RESOLVE 787 - Palearctic

Canary Islands dry woodlands and forests

The Canary Islands dry woodlands and forests ecoregion covers the five western islands of Spain's Canary Archipelago-La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife, and Gran Canaria-volcanic islands in the Atlantic roughly 115 km off the northwest African coast. Vegetation sorts itself by elevation: lowland scrub and open woodland with the Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis) and dragon trees give way to humid laurisilva (laurel) forest between about 500 and 1,400 m, fayal-brezal heath of Myrica faya and tree heath (Erica arborea), and forests of the endemic Canary Island pine. The climate is dry and warm, with rain falling mainly in winter and the moist northeasterly trade winds making windward slopes far wetter than the southwestern rain shadow. Despite their small area, the islands are exceptionally rich in endemic and relict species, including endemic birds such as Bolle's pigeon and the Tenerife blue chaffinch, and a large share of the archipelago's vascular flora is found nowhere else. Conservation is significant here, with about 52% of the ecoregion protected within parks such as Teide and Garajonay National Parks.

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

RESOLVE 788 - Palearctic

Corsican montane broadleaf and mixed forests

The Corsican montane broadleaf and mixed forests cover the high, steep mountain massifs of the island of Corsica in France, climbing to summits such as Monte Cinto (2,710 m) and Monte Rotondo (2,625 m). Vegetation shifts sharply with elevation: evergreen sclerophyll oak forests of holm oak and cork oak occupy the lower slopes, maritime pine mixes with downy oak, European hop-hornbeam, Italian alder, and sweet chestnut at middle elevations, while silver fir and European beech hold cool north-facing slopes and Corsican pine (Pinus laricio) dominates the sunnier southern aspects. The climate follows a strong altitudinal gradient, from warm, dry lower elevations to cold, humid heights. The flagship Corsican red deer has been reintroduced here, and the ecoregion harbors a notably rich endemic flora alongside endemics such as the Corsican nuthatch and Corsican fire salamander. For gardeners, native ornamental woody genera here include juniper, sycamore maple, and silver birch found in its subalpine shrublands.

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

RESOLVE 789 - Palearctic

Crete Mediterranean forests

The Crete Mediterranean forests ecoregion covers the entire Greek island of Crete, the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Basin, ranging from low coastal plains up over three mountain spines: the Lefka Ori, Psiloritis (Mount Ida), and the Dikti Mountains. Vegetation shifts sharply with elevation, from sclerophyllous evergreen and semi-deciduous oak forests and maquis of carob and Phoenician juniper in the lowlands, through Calabrian pine and kermes oak woodlands, up to cypress stands where the endemic Cretan maple grows. The climate is strongly altitude-dependent: warm, dry lowlands average about 17 to 19 degrees Celsius with under 300 mm of annual rainfall, while cold, humid highlands average roughly 9 to 13 degrees Celsius with up to 1,400 mm. Crete's long island isolation gives it a distinctive flora of around 1,600 species, about 10% of which are endemic, including the near-endemic Cretan date palm (Phoenix theophrasti) of coastal ravines, alongside flagship fauna such as the Cretan wild goat. For gardeners, characteristic native genera include Cistus, Thymus, Phlomis, and Genista, well suited to dry Mediterranean planting.

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

RESOLVE 790 - Palearctic

Cyprus Mediterranean forests

The Cyprus Mediterranean forests ecoregion covers the entire island of Cyprus, the third-largest island in the Mediterranean, spanning both the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus and divided between the Kyrenia range along the north coast and the larger Troodos range in the southwest, which rises to Mount Olympos at 1,952 meters. Lower elevations carry maquis and garigue scrub with European olive, carob, and Phoenician juniper alongside oaks, while Calabrian pine clothes both mountain ranges and higher Troodos slopes hold Anatolian black pine, foetid juniper, and two endemic trees, the Cyprus cedar (Cedrus brevifolia) and golden oak (Quercus alnifolia). The climate is Mediterranean, warm and dry across the central Mesaoria plain but humid and cooler in the surrounding mountains. The island supports a rich endemic flora concentrated in the mountains, and its flagship animal is the Cyprus mouflon, a wild sheep with distinctive sickle-shaped horns. Gardeners may recognize several ornamental geophytes native here, including Cyclamen cyprium, the Cyprus tulip (Tulipa cypria), and Crocus cyprius.

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

Where this ecoregion reaches

The countries, US states, and Canadian provinces this ecoregion touches, from a spatial join of its RESOLVE polygon against Natural Earth boundaries.

Countries

Portugal Spain

Educator packet

Region packet

Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests educator packet

Realm

Palearctic

Dominant biome

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub

Approximate area

114,943 square miles

States / provinces

Not recorded

Climate descriptor

Not recorded

Classroom prompts

- Which climate and biome facts explain why this region supports its characteristic plants?

- How do native-plant and wildlife-support claims differ from a species-presence claim?

- Which source-backed facts would you cite before using this region in a classroom map activity?

Use the Sources & citations section below for page citation styles and region source links.

Sources & citations

Cite this page

For lesson plans, articles, or regional planting notes that use this Plotwright page. To cite the underlying ecoregion framework or a specific editorial profile, use the source cards below.

Plotwright. (n.d.). Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests (Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests). Retrieved 2026, August 20, from https://plotwright.com/regions/resolve-793

Sources for this region

This page cites Plotwright first for the compiled view, then lists the upstream framework, climate, and editorial source pages so readers can cite the original material directly.

RESOLVE 2017 Terrestrial Ecoregions (Dinerstein et al.)

Primary ecoregion framework

One Earth

Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation

Open source

Source guide