Coastal sage scrub

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Coastal sage scrub is a low scrubland plant community found in the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California and northern Baja California. It is characterized by low-growing aromatic, and drought-deciduous shrubs adapted to the semi-arid Mediterranean climate of the coastal lowlands. The community is sometimes called Soft Chaparral due to the predominance of soft, drought-deciduous leaves in contrast to the hard, waxy-cuticled leaves on sclerophyllous plants of California's chaparral communities.

Coastal sage scrublands are mostly found in the coastal lowlands of Southern California, from Santa Barbara County in the north, through the Oxnard Plain of Ventura County, the Los Angeles Basin, most of Orange County, parts of Riverside County, coastal San Diego County, and the northwestern corner of Mexico's Baja California state, including the region around Tijuana and Ensenada.

Characteristic plants include California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica), Black Sage (Salvia mellifera), White Sage (Salvia apiana), California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), Coast Brittle-bush (Encelia californica), Golden Yarrow (Eriophyllum confertifolium), with the larger shrubs Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) and Lemonade Berry (Rhus integrifolia), along with other shrubs and herbaceous plants, grasses, cacti and succulents.

The metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Tijuana are located in the coastal sage scrublands, and most of the scrublands have been lost to urbanization and agriculture. Like the state's residents, the plants of this community prefer the mild maritime climates found along California's coastline. World Wildlife Fund estimates that only 15% of the coastal sage scrublands remain undeveloped. The California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica), is a critically endangered bird species endemic to the coastal sage scrublands.