Abstract
In five widely separated regions of the world, lying for the most part between 30° and 40° N and S of the Equator, are areas of similar climate. These regions closely resemble the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea not only in climate, but also in the gross aspect of their vegetation; hence, both climate and vegetation are said to be “mediterranean”. When European explorers first reached the Cape region of South Africa, central Chile, California, and southwestern and southern Australia, they were surprised to find landscapes that reminded them of those they knew in Spain, southern France and Italy. They were also delighted to find that the grapes, olives, and citrus that they brought with them flourished in these distant lands. Later, they began to wonder just how closely the floras and faunas of these regions really resembled one another, and whether they had ever been connected by areas of climate so similar that plants and animals could have moved directly from one to another.
This chapter is a partial revision of Raven (1971), which was prepared for a symposium—“Plant Life of SW Asia”—held at Edinburgh in 1970. The current paper is based upon additional information that has come to my attention since the completion of that manuscript in April 1970. I am grateful to D. I. Axelrod and to Harold Mooney for their critical reviews of the entire paper, and to D. M. Bates, J. F. M. Cannon, L. Constance, W. F. Grant, M. C. Johnston, H.A. Mooney, G. Wagenitz, and S. M. Walters for special information provided during the course of its preparation. The work was supported by grants from the U. S. National Science Foundation.
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Raven, P.H. (1973). The Evolution of Mediterranean Floras. In: di Castri, F., Mooney, H.A. (eds) Mediterranean Type Ecosystems. Ecological Studies, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65520-3_14
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