Mediterranean BasinIn biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (ˌmɛdɪtəˈreɪniən ), also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea, is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and warm to hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation. The Mediterranean Basin covers portions of three continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Savage IslandsThe Savage Islands or Selvagens Islands (Ilhas Selvagens ˈiʎɐʃ sɛlˈvaʒɐ̃jʃ; also known as the Salvage Islands) are a small Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, south of Madeira, and north of the Canary Islands. The archipelago includes two major islands, Selvagem Grande and Selvagem Pequena, each surrounded by a cluster of islets and reefs, with the total area of . The archipelago is administered as part of the Portuguese municipality of Funchal, belongs to the Madeiran civil parish of Sé, and is the southernmost point of Portugal.
Laurel forestLaurel forest, also called laurisilva or laurissilva, is a type of subtropical forest found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable, mild temperatures. The forest is characterized by broadleaf tree species with evergreen, glossy and elongated leaves, known as "laurophyll" or "lauroid". Plants from the laurel family (Lauraceae) may or may not be present, depending on the location. Laurel and laurophyll forests have a patchy distribution in warm temperate regions, often occupying topographic refugia where the moisture from the ocean condenses so that it falls as rain or fog and soils have high moisture levels.
Cape VerdeCape Verde (ˈvɜːrd(i), ) or Cabo Verde (ˌkɑːboʊ_ˈvɜːrdeɪ, ˌkæb-, ; ˈkaβu ˈveɾðɨ), officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an archipelago and island country in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands lie between west of Cap-Vert, the westernmost point of continental Africa. The Cape Verde islands form part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Savage Isles.
Palearctic realmThe Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Siberian region; the Mediterranean Basin; the Sahara and Arabian Deserts; and Western, Central and East Asia. The Palaearctic realm also has numerous rivers and lakes, forming several freshwater ecoregions. The term 'Palearctic' was first used in the 19th century, and is still in use as the basis for zoogeographic classification.
Cloud forestA cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level, formally described in the International Cloud Atlas (2017) as silvagenitus. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and vegetation, in which case they are also referred to as mossy forests.
La PalmaLa Palma (la ˈpalma, lɐ ˈpɑ(l)mɐ), also known as La isla bonita (The Beautiful Island) and officially San Miguel de La Palma, is the most northwesterly island of the Canary Islands, Spain. La Palma has an area of making it the fifth largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The total population at the end of 2020 was 85,840, of which 15,716 lived in the capital, Santa Cruz de La Palma and about 20,467 in Los Llanos de Aridane. Its highest mountain is the Roque de los Muchachos, at , being second among the peaks of the Canaries after the Teide massif on Tenerife.
Autonomous Regions of PortugalThe two Autonomous Regions of Portugal from 1999 (Regiões Autónomas de Portugal) are the Azores (Região Autónoma dos Açores) and Madeira (Região Autónoma da Madeira). Together with Continental Portugal (Portugal Continental), they form the Portuguese Republic. The autonomous regions were established in 1976 in the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution, which saw Portugal end its colonial empire. Some areas, such as the Azores, Madeira and Macau, were deemed either impractical to decolonise or too close in ties to Continental Portugal to make independent.
Canary IslandsThe Canary Islands (kəˈnɛəri; Canarias, kaˈnaɾjas), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the Atlantic Ocean. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocco. They are the southernmost of the autonomous communities of Spain. The islands have a population of 2.2 million people and are the most populous special territory of the European Union.
PhytochorionA phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phytochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both regions overlap. The region of overlap is called a vegetation tension zone. In traditional schemes, areas in phytogeography are classified hierarchically, according to the presence of endemic families, genera or species, e.g.
