Native Plants of Spain: Climate and Soil Influence
Landscape Plants in Spain
Oceanic Climate in the Eurosiberian Floral Region
The most characteristic vegetation is deciduous forest, heath, and meadow.
Deciduous Forest
Consisting of tall trees, with straight trunks and large leaves that fall in autumn. The most characteristic species are oak and beech. Under the trees, ferns and mosses grow in a somber mood in the tops of the trees.
- The heat has been poorly tolerated and requires high humidity. It is well adapted to calcareous and siliceous soils but prefers calcareous.
- The oak is less tolerant to cold and cannot stand hot summers but requires less moisture than you.
The Moor and Meadows
The heath vegetation is a dense shrub, whose height can be low or reach four meters. The heath is listed as the deciduous forest degradation, usually used for animal bedding and then as fertilizer.
The meadows are tall vegetation formations that occupy large tracts of low ground in abundant herbaceous vegetation and grasslands.
Mediterranean Climate
Its vegetation frills to:
Evergreen Forests
Consisting of medium-height trees with trunks, not straight rugosa. Their thick bark and branches cast a shadow on the ground to alleviate sunstroke and evaporation. It possesses a rich understory of mountain piorno and broom. The most characteristic species are:
- The oak tree is drought tolerant and adapts to all soil types.
- The cork oak needs mild winters, some moisture, and siliceous soils.
- Pine is a plant of secondary training that adapts to extreme cold, heat, humidity, and dryness, as well as to different soils.
Thicket Formation
It is a result of forest degradation by the action of being human. It presents characteristic types as:
- The bush is a dense shrubbery, almost impenetrable.
- The garrigue, consisting of low shrubs and bushes. Species features are thyme, rosemary, and lavender.
- The steppe consists of low grass, interspersed with thorny bushes, gnarled, low, and discontinuous, that expose poor soils.
Riparian
It is a landscape that presents constant water that can live only certain species in the river’s parallel paths.
The riparian forests are formed by species such as alder, willow, poplar, and cottonwood.
Mountain Landscape Plants
In the mountains, the vegetation has floors that have vegetation vary depending on the height. Accordingly, it can distinguish between:
The Alps or Pyrenees Mountain
It is represented by the Pyrenees. At its upper three floors can be distinguished:
- The natural subalpine coniferous meets, such as spruce and black pine. The fir can form mixed forests with beech.
- The alpine meadow is proficient, which has a short growing season. At this point, rupicolous small plants grow, i.e., adapted to live in the rocks.
- The snowy floor slope is reduced spaces in which snow remains all year and the vegetation is nonexistent.
Other areas of high slope, where snow disappears some time. Here there are small rock-dwelling plants, arranged directly on the rock (lichens and mosses), or in cracks and fissures.
The Rest of the Peninsular Mountains
Devoid of subalpine coniferous forests. The floor is formed by supraforestal small shrubs. In the Atlantic area, abundant heather and broom, and in the Mediterranean area, shrubs and thorny bushes. Above the supraforestal floor are the meadows.
Canary Islands
The vegetation of the Canary Islands with African influences and the South Atlantic. In their insular, play a large role endemism (own unique vegetation) and relics (vegetation that occupied large areas in other geological eras different climate).
This original plant is based on the relief, which leads to a succession of floors:
- The basement floor is marked by aridity. Dominated by sparse scrub and rough.
- The middle floor conditioned by lower heat and increased humidity.
- The Termocanario floor. The vegetation is adapted to the fogs caused by the trade winds, the most refreshing and less sunshine. It consists of two original forest formations: the laurel forest, very dense, and Fayal, heather, resulting from the laurel forest degradation by human action.
- The Canary floor is dominated by coniferous forest. Its main species is the Canary Island pine that must adapt to special conditions of aridity and cold.
- The supracanario floor is present in only Tenerife and La Palma. It is characterized by strong naked, Matillas.
Horizons and Soil Profile
The result of their evolution, soils are made up of layers or horizons identified by their physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. The whole horizon is the soil profile.
- In-depth horizon include the consolidated and parent rock horizon where the weathered bedrock.
- In the first surface layer is formed by the leaves, the second formed by decaying organic matter, and a third and final layer leaching area in which there is a loss of substances that are washed away the layers of precipitation lower.
- Between the two is located accumulation horizon area and alteration.
Soil Types
There are two types:
- Soil zonal turn there are several types according to the climate.
a) An oceanic climate, soils rich in organic matter and acid rain’s constant as rain that washed the surface layers and pull the foundation to the lower strata.
b) Mediterranean climate in these soils are siliceous rocks more land feature is the southern brown earth, limestone which highlights the Mediterranean red soil and red earth on the other hand in the clay and loam land arise or black vertisols.
Azonal and Intrazonal Soils
- Azonal Soils: These soils are not well-defined characteristics because they have not had enough time to form or because they are located on steep slopes.
- Intrazonal Soils: These soils, if well developed in Spain, include brown limestone with abundant limestone, rendzinas on calcium carbonate content, flood on the banks of rivers and flooded areas endorheic, sandy soils, salt, and volcanoes.