Mediterranean Basin
100 millimeters to as much as 3,000 millimeters.
Although much of the hotspot was once covered in evergreen oak forests, deciduous and conifer forests, eight thousand years of
human settlement and habitat modification have distinctly altered the characteristic vegetation. Today, the most widespread vegetation
type is hard-leafed or sclerophyllus shrublands called maquis or matorral, which include representatives from the plant genera
Juniperus, Myrtus, Olea, Phillyrea, Pistacia, and Quercus. This vegetation is similar in appearance to the chaparral vegetation of
California and the matorral of Chile. Some important components of Mediterranean vegetation (species of the genera Arbutus,
Calluna, Ceratonia, Chamaerops, and Larus) are relicts from the ancient forests that dominated the Basin two million years ago.
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