A NOTE ON A CHAPARRAL-FOREST RELATION AT 

 CARMEL, CALIFORNLA. 



W. A. CANNON 

 The Desert Laboratory, Tucson, Arizona 



In the vicinity of the Carmel, CaUfornia, branch of the Desert 

 Laboratory there are many land and sea plants which are of 

 much interest, not only in or of themselves, but, also, in the rela- 

 tionship which they often hold to each other. The present note 

 refers to certain features in the relations between chaparral and 

 forest which came to my attention recently. 



On the Monterey peninsula, which lies between Monterey bay 

 and Carmel l^ay, and in the vicinity of Carmel, as well as in the 

 town itself, the most important formations of the larger land 

 plants are forest and chaparral. The forest is composed almost 

 entirely of Pinus radiata and Quercus agrifolia, with the former 

 dominating. There are also Monterey cypress (Cupressus macro- 

 carpa), Cupressus goveniana, Pinus muricata, Quercus wislizenii, 

 Quercus agrifolia, and other oaks, but all of these are of restricted 

 range, or occur in small numbers. The relation of the oaks to 

 the pines is a peculiar one and will not be touched on here. 



The chaparral may be found in the Carmel region ranging from 

 100 feet to 2000 feet, and may reach within one-half mile, or so, 

 of the sea. At the higher altitude it occurs free of forest trees, 

 and there one finds such shrubs as Garrya, Ceanothus, Vaccinium, 

 Castoniopsis, Adenostoma, Arctosiophylos and others. At the 

 lower altitudes, however, the chaparral may not be free from 

 forest intrusion. This is the condition at Carmel where the 

 Monterey pine (P. radiata) and Eucina oak {Quercus agrifolia) 

 especially invade the chaparral, forming an open forest with the 

 pine dominating. There are no apparent differences in the sub- 

 aerial portions of such pines as develop in chaparral and such 

 as grow free from chaparral, but it is possible, from what will 



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