Matorral

Matorral is a Spanish word, along with tomillares, for shrubland, thicket or bushes. It is used in naming and describing a Mediterranean climate ecosystem in Southern Europe.

Matorral originally referred just to the Matorral shrublands and woodlands ecoregion of the global Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub Biome in the Mediterranean climate regions of Spain and other Mediterranean basin countries. These scrub shrublands and woodlands are a plant community and a distinct habitat. Other common general names for this Mediterranean region shrubland habitat ecosystem are: in France as Maquis and Garrigue; in Italy as Macchia Mediterranea; in Greece as Phrygana; in Portugal as Mato; and in Israel as Batha. Now the term is used more broadly to include similar bio-assemblages where ever they occur.

In Portugal, the term mato or matagal is used to refer to the scrublands, or heaths, that formed on the Cambrian and Silurian schists in the north and central parts of Portugal.

Mediterranean Matorral shrublands are often part of a mosaic landscape, interspersed with forests, woodlands, grassland, and scrublands.

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