Which one of the following groups of cities does not have Sclerophyll as its natural vegetation cover?
- (a)Valparaiso and Cape Town
- (b)Lisbon and Perth
- (c)Los Angeles and Adelaide
- (d)Las Vegas and Queensland
Correct — D, Las Vegas and Queensland. Sclerophyll is the hard-leaved, evergreen, drought-resisting vegetation of the Mediterranean climate — small thick waxy leaves that cut water loss through a hot rainless summer, with evergreen oaks, olive, cork oak and aromatic shrubs as the type plants. Mediterranean climates sit on the western sides of continents in roughly the 30-45 degree belt in both hemispheres, and the other three pairs each name two such places: Valparaiso in central Chile and Cape Town at the Cape, Lisbon in Portugal and Perth in south-western Australia, Los Angeles in California and Adelaide in South Australia. The fourth pair breaks the pattern twice over. Las Vegas lies inland in the Mojave, a true desert whose natural cover is desert scrub, not sclerophyll. Queensland is not a city at all but a large Australian state on the eastern, not western, side of the continent, running from humid subtropical in the south-east to tropical in the north. Neither carries Mediterranean vegetation, which is why (d) is the group that does not.
- (a)Valparaiso and Cape Town — Both are classic Mediterranean sites, so this pair does carry sclerophyll. Central Chile has its matorral and the Cape its fynbos — two of the five Mediterranean shrubland regions of the world.
- (b)Lisbon and Perth — Both are Mediterranean. Lisbon sits in the Mediterranean basin's Atlantic corner among cork oak and olive; Perth is in south-western Australia, where the kwongan and jarrah country is the local sclerophyll formation.
- (c)Los Angeles and Adelaide — Both are Mediterranean. California's chaparral around Los Angeles and the mallee of South Australia around Adelaide are hard-leaved evergreen scrub of exactly this type.
The Mediterranean or warm temperate west-coast climate has hot dry summers and mild wet winters, the rain arriving with the westerlies as the subtropical high shifts equatorward in winter. Its vegetation answers the summer drought with sclerophylly — small, thick, leathery evergreen leaves. The formation carries a different name in each of its five regions: maquis and garrigue in the Mediterranean basin, chaparral in California, matorral in Chile, fynbos at the Cape, mallee and kwongan in southern and south-western Australia.
This is a locate-the-outlier item and it is best solved by testing each place against one rule: is it on the western side of a continent, between about 30 and 45 degrees of latitude? Valparaiso, Cape Town, Lisbon, Perth, Los Angeles and Adelaide all pass. Las Vegas fails on longitude — it is deep inland behind the Sierra Nevada, in rain shadow, and its cover is Mojave desert scrub. Queensland fails on two counts: the paper calls it a city when it is a state, and it lies on Australia's eastern seaboard where the climate runs humid subtropical to tropical. The paper's spelling of the vegetation type is the standard one; note only that sclerophyll is a vegetation term and is used here in place of naming the climate directly.
- Sclerophyll vegetation has small, thick, leathery evergreen leaves that limit water loss through a hot, rainless summer.
- Mediterranean climates occupy the western margins of continents roughly between 30 and 45 degrees north and south.
- The five Mediterranean shrubland regions are the Mediterranean basin, California, central Chile, the Cape of South Africa and southern and south-western Australia.
- Las Vegas lies in the Mojave Desert of the interior American West; its natural cover is desert scrub.
- Queensland is an Australian state on the east coast, ranging from humid subtropical in the south-east to tropical in the north.
- Assuming any warm dry place carries Mediterranean vegetation — Las Vegas is arid but it is desert, not Mediterranean.
- Missing that Queensland is a state, not a city, and lies on the wrong side of the continent.
- Forgetting that Mediterranean climates occur on four continents besides Europe.
As a city-to-climate or city-to-vegetation grouping, or as a straight matching of maquis, chaparral, fynbos and matorral to their regions.
A geographic region has the following distinct characteristics: 1. Warm and dry climate 2. Mild and wet winter 3. Evergreen oak trees The above features are the distinct characteristics of which one of the following regions?
- (a) Mediterranean
- (b) Eastern China
- (c) Central Asia
- (d) Atlantic coast of North America
Answer(a) Mediterranean
The same climate read from its vegetation. That UPSC item hands you dry summers, wet mild winters and evergreen oaks and asks for the region; this CDS item hands you the vegetation type and asks which pair of cities does not have it. Evergreen oak is the textbook sclerophyll.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following pairs of Mediterranean scrub formations and regions is correctly matched?
- (a)Fynbos — California
- (b)Chaparral — Chile
- (c)Matorral — central Chile
- (d)Maquis — south-western Australia
Answer(c) Matorral — central Chile. Fynbos belongs to the Cape, chaparral to California and maquis to the Mediterranean basin.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The characteristic leaf of sclerophyll vegetation is
- (a)broad, thin and deciduous
- (b)small, thick and evergreen
- (c)needle-shaped and shed in winter
- (d)succulent and water-storing
Answer(b) small, thick and evergreen — hard leathery leaves cut transpiration through the long rainless summer of a Mediterranean climate.