Matorral

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Matorral is a Spanish word for shrubland, thicket or bushes. Matorral originally referred to the Matorral shrublands of Spain's Mediterranean climate regions, but the term followed Spanish settlement of the Americas, and is used to refer to both Mediterranean-climate and xeric shrublands in Mexico, Chile, and elsewhere. Mediterranean shrublands are often part of a mosaic landscape, interspersed with forests, woodlands, grassland, and scrublands.

In Portugal, the term mato was used to refer to the scrublands, or heaths, that formed on the Cambrian and Silurian schists in the north and central parts of Portugal. The term was imported to the New World, where it was used to refer to the great scrublands, Mato Grosso, of western Brazil.

[edit] See also

• Chilean Matorral
• Central Mexican matorral
• Meseta Central matorral
• Tamaulipan matorral
• Tehuacán Valley matorral