Mediterranean Climate Agriculture

This collection of resources pertaining to Mediterranean Climate Agriculture was compiled by ECHO Intern Eleni Patitsas in April, 2017.

"It is generally accepted that the mediterranean climate occurs in southern and southwestern Australia, central Chile, coastal California, the Western Cape of South Africa and around the Mediterranean Basin. The largest area with a mediterranean climate is the Mediterranean Basin, which has given the climate its name, although stretches of the Mediterranean coast (in Egypt, Libya and part of Tunisia) are too dry to be thus classified. More than half of the total mediterranean-climate regions on earth occur on the Mediterranean Sea.

Mediterranean-climate regions are found, roughly speaking, between 31 and 40 degrees latitude north and south of the equator, on the western side of continents. Yet they can extend eastwards for thousands of kilometers into arid regions if not arrested by mountains or confronted with moist climates, such as the summer rainfall that occurs in certain regions of Australia and South Africa. The most extended penetration goes from the Mediterranean Basin up into western Pakistan and into some areas of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (the source of many of our cherished bulbous plants)."  [ As described by the Mediterranean Garden Society ]

The native vegetation of mediterranean climate lands must be adapted to survive long, hot summer droughts and prolonged wet periods in winter.  Mediterranean vegetation examples include the following:

• Evergreen trees: such as bay laurel, pine, cypress, and oak

• Deciduous trees: such as sycamore, oak, and buckeyes

• Fruit trees such as olive, figs, walnuts, and grapes

• Shrubs: rosemary, Erica, Banksia, and chamise

• Sub-shrubs: such as lavender, Halimium, and sagebrush

• Grasses:  grassland types, Themeda triandra, bunchgrasses, sedges, and rushes

• Herbs: such as Achillea, Dietes, Helichrysum, and Penstemon