| environ. |
brushwood Woody vegetation including shrubs and scrub trees of non-commercial height and form, often seen in the initial stages of succession following a disturbance. Brush often grows in very dense thickets that are impenetrable to wild animals and serve to suppress the growth of more desirable crop trees. However, brush can also serve an important function as desirable habitat for a range or bird, animal, and invertebrate species, and often provides a good source of browse and cover for larger wildlife. It adds structural diversity within the forest and is important in riparian zones. It is also termed scrub; maquis A low evergreen shrub formation, usually found on siliceous soils in the Mediterranean lands where winter rainfall and summer drought are the characteristic climate features. It consists of a profusion of aromatic species, such as lavender, myrtle, oleander and rosemary and often includes abundant spiny shrubs. It has been suggested that the maquis is a secondary vegetation, occupying the lands cleared of their natural evergreen oak forests by human activity |
