34.6 - Mediterranean tall-grass and wormwood steppes (Classification Paléarctique (PHYSIS 2001))

34.6 - Mediterranean tall-grass and wormwood steppes

Classification des habitats du Paléarctique (2001)

Description

Meso-, thermo- and sometimes supra-Mediterranean formations of the Mediterranean basin, physiognomically dominated by tall grasses, between which may grow communities of annuals or sometimes chamaephytes. They include silicicolous as well as basiphile formations. In the Mediterranean region proper, they are most characteristic of the Iberian peninsula, of parts of the North African coastal regions and of the Mediterranean rim of Anatolia and the Levant, with local representations in southern Provence, Sardinia, southern peninsular Italy, Sicily and Greece. In the transition regions between the Mediterranean zone and the southern Palaearctic deserts they come to dominate the landscape, forming major steppe belts in the Saharo-Mediterranean transition zone and in Western Asia. Perhaps largely anthropogenic, they are physiognomically and, at least in Asia, to some extent, floristically similar to the continental formations of unit 34.9, but, developed under a Mediterranean climate regime and mostly with a single period of dormancy. They associate with Artemisia-dominated steppes, related even more closely to Central Eurasian formations of unit 34.9, but listed here to preserve ecogeographical unity.

Correspondances phytosociologiques

Lygeo-Stipetea p. (Rosmarinetalia p.), Brachypodio-Chrysopogonetea p.

Bibliography

Devillers P., Devillers-Terschuren J. & Vander Linden C., 2001. PHYSIS Palaearctic Habitat Classification Database. Updated to 10 December 2001. Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles, Bruxelles. (Source)

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