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Animal Bytes: Scrubland

What is scrubland?

Scrublands are areas that are dry and hot during the summer, but saved from becoming desert by cool, moist winters. Scrublands go by many names: chaparral in California, mallee in Australia, fynbos in South Africa, and mattoral in Chile.

What grows here?

In these areas, some plants may lie dormant during the summer, budding and blooming in the autumn and flourishing with the rainfall during the winter. Some trees grow here, such as oaks, pines, and cypresses, but they rarely get very large. An exception is in the scrubland forest of Australia, where the eucalyptus trees can be quite tall. Most of the plants in these habitats are scrub plants. They survive the harsh summers by dropping their leaves, having tough, leathery leaves that retain water, or by dying back to their roots to reappear in the fall. Many plants in these areas also have thorns and strong-smelling oils to protect themselves from hungry herbivores.