
CHAPARRAL. 9 
MOCK CHAPARRAL. 
Unfortunately, the word “chaparral” has acquired an elastic 
meaning and is sometimes used to describe dwarf trees and brush 
found in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and even as far 
north as Idaho. It is necessary, for two reasons, to make a distinc- 
tion between the true chaparral and the mock. First, in California, 
as a result of the climate, the growth is very much dwarfed, while in 
other regions, where the seasonal rainfall is more evenly distributed, 
it is not so stunted. Second, in California chaparral holds complete 
possession of its domain, neither gaining on nor giving way to 
conifers or larger deciduous trees. In other States the several cha- 
parral species have generally taken possession of logged, burned, or 
otherwise denuded forest areas. Their hold upon the soil is there- 
fore temporary. They were preceded by a forest, and will in time 
give way to a new one if external interference ceases. They form a 
cover and are desirable only on account of their rapid growth on 
denuded areas, but having insignificant commercial value, are not 
to be preferred to the natural forest. (PI. II, fig. 2.) Because of 
its tendency to supplant valuable timber growth upon areas where 
recurrent fires interfere with natural conditions in its favor, mock 
chaparral often becomes a distinctly undesirable form of forest 
cover. Its sprouting power enables it quickly to reoccupy the ground 
after a fire with a denser growth than before, while its generally 
inflammable foliage makes each succeeding fire hotter than its pre- 
decessor, and consequently more destructive to other forms of tree 
growth. For these reasons foresters consider mock chaparral a pest, 
the spread of which may be prevented only by keeping fires out. 
As it is the prevailing climate which fixes, in any region, the char- 
acter of the plant life, the growth of chaparral is evidently the best 
which the conditions will permit. In the areas of mock chaparral, 
except at high elevations or on exposed sites, the climatic conditions 
are more favorable to tree growth, and the chaparral can not gain the 
ascendancy unless the forest has been placed at a disadvantage. 
There is ever, as Schimper explains, a contest between opponents for 
dominion over the soil, and while climatic conditions may limit the 
domain of each it requires but a slight change in those conditions to 
revive the contest. 
In northern California Adenostoma, Arctostaphylos, Ceanothus, 
and Quercus are the principal genera of the so-called chaparral. In 
Arizona and New Mexico the term is restricted usually to the oak 
brush, Quercus gambelii and Quercus undulata. The English term 
“ shinnery ” is also applied to the same type. Occasionally a thicket 
of mesquite, Prosopis juliflora, is spoken of as chaparral. In Col- 
orado the term is usually applied to the scrub oak, Quercus undulata, 
91565°—Bull. 85—11 2 

