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SCRUBLANDS AND UNDERGROWTH These two names are confidentially connected to the accents of Noon of France. One can not speak about the Aude without evoking these two circles which sing to the accents of Noon of France. The scrubland is more known because, except the fact that it covers more important territories, she(it) represents the essence of this country with her(its) nice-smelling spaces where from gets free a multitude of subtle flavors scattered by the wind. In Corbières, the scrubland is omnipresent whereas the undergrowth remains more discreet. Garigues and undergrowth The scrubland and the undergrowth are vegetable formings(trainings) which result both of the degradation of the Mediterranean forest, mostly by fire or surpâturage. What differentiates them, besides their aspect and their procession floristique appropriate(clean) (although several sorts are common to the two circles as junipers, filaires, prunellier, nerpruns, broom scorpion and the broom of Spain " Spartium junceum ", etc.) It is the nature of the ground on which settle down these vegetable associations. In the neolithic time, the men(people) took up the forest established(constituted) by holm oaks or downy oaks mainly according to the climatic influences and the conditions of the ground of the station. During the centuries, these grounds were deforested, put in culture or transformed into meadows, sometimes burned. A specific flora became established in these places to form scrublands or undergrowths. This naming in the plural is more appropriate because there is no scrubland or no undergrowth but effectively no scrublands and undergrowths. The various facies are determined by the local climatic conditions, the length of the period of summer aridity (in Mediterranean climate, the irregular precipitation show a deficit in summer), the strong winds (in the Aude, Cers is particularly virulent), the nature and the depth of the ground, the exhibition of grounds, their former(old) destinations (meadows or cultures), the importance of the pasture, the human activities generally and the colonization or not of stratum raised (notably by pines, essences pioneers). Of more a progressive evolution (or regressive further to a fire for example), more or less slow, affect these circles unless they are the object of artificial reafforestations quickly allowing a return to the wooded state. Scrublands and undergrowths illustrate perfectly this dynamic aspect of the vegetable associations and this constant idea of evolution. The scrubland The scrubland is a more or less opened vegetable forming(training), consisted largely of shrubs, shrubs and sub-shrubs, resulting from the regression of the Mediterranean forest, mostly by fire or surpâturage, on generally not acid ground. (Definition according to the vocabulary of typology of the forested stations published(edited) by the Institute for the Forested Development - on 1985) Scrubland would come from the Celtic word " gar " which wants to say cliff. To explain this scientific definition, let us say simply that this vegetable forming(training) meets essentially on calcareous soil and that it consists of scattered sorts ( opened environment)(middle) or the cliff appears in numerous places. The most common botanical species, adapted to
the dry and dry circles, and to the superficial grounds (poor
men in humus), which are are there: - The main plants aromatic as the thym, the rosemary
or the lavender aspic (mellifères famous plants), In every season, the scrubland will amaze you: in spring, flowers appear everywhere in a multicolored explosion whereas many bees work continuously to amass honey and pollen; in summer, under a delirious sun, it becomes the domain of insects or resounds a concert orchestrated by the stridulatory cicadas; in autumn and in winter, she knows how to keep(guard) all her plenitude by keeping(preserving) her green finery. It is often after strong rains that she(it) exhales abundantly her(its) fragrant smells. If the flora, by its beauty and its charm, establishes(constitutes) the wealth of the scrubland, she(it) shelters as well a variety of mammals, big and small, a big number of reptiles (who(which) the magnificent ocellé lizard), a multitude of birds and a collection of insects which occupy secretly places. The undergrowth The undergrowth is a vegetable arbustive generally closed forming(training) (often on base of Ericacées and Cistacées), resulting from the regression, mostly by fire or surpâturage, of the Mediterranean forest on generally acid ground. (Definition according to the vocabulary of typology of the forested stations published(edited) by the Institute for the Forested Development - on 1985). Contrary to the scrubland, the undergrowth settles down on siliceous grounds mainly and numerous buissonnantes sorts often form an inextricable vegetation ("closed", the " bartas " as one says in Languedoc, expresses this idea of thick and impenetrable bushes, of buissonnantes brambles, real natural wall). The most characteristic botanical species which contain these circles are:
If these grounds are not convenient to the walk outside paths and roads, the hard wild boars find discounts(deliveries) there being of use to them as pension. As in scrubland, the fauna is also very diversified. Let us indicate all the same that Hermann's tortoise is a particular host of the undergrowth. The fire and the collection of this sort almost removed him(it). In the Aude, its presence is vague and anyway extremely rare. In the massif of the Moors, a plan of protection is begun for this Mediterranean tortoise. Patric VALETTE, National Office of Forests, January, 2004 | ||