At first
glance that's a stupid question. We all know what a mediterranean
climate is -- it's dry warm summers and cool wet winters. That's
like asking what a mountain is; we all know one when we see
one.
Or do we?
In the eastern United States, the Appalachians are considered a
mountain range. In northern India they'd be foothills. I think we
have a similar problem with mediterranean climates. For example, the
specific weather that people call "mediterranean" in much of Europe
is quite a bit different from the specifics California. In fact, the
more closely you look at them the more different they start to
look.
Speaking
as a Californian who successfully grows some mediterranean plants
and fails consistently with others, I'm convinced that many of my
struggles have come from a naive assumption that everything
"mediterranean" needs the same basic
conditions.
We've had
a lot of discussion of this topic over at the Pacific Bulb Society,
and a couple of us ended up creating charts and maps comparing the
various mediterranean climates around the world. The results
were interesting to me, and I wanted to share them here. A few
highlights...
--South
Africa and Western/Southern Australia have the mildest climates.
Compared to the other mediterranean regions, they are a bit milder
in winter and have less severe droughts in
summer.
--California's
mediterranean climate may be the hardest on plants. It generally has
colder winters and drier summers than the other
regions.
--Coastal
Oregon and Washington have weather that resembles a mediterranean
pattern in many ways. Officially, climatologists do not classify
them as mediterranean, but for plant-growing purposes I think of
them as semi-mediterranean. The same thing applies to south-central
Chile.
--Central
Chile's pattern is similar to California's, although a bit milder in
many areas.
--Europe
is a mix of all the other regions. Spain, southern France, Italy,
and Morocco/Algeria all have comparatively moist summers. The Greek
islands and the Middle East have very dry
summers.
I should
also note that Sean O'Hara has put up some interesting comparative
climate information on the gimcw website here:http://www.gimcw.org/climate/
Mike
San Jose, CA (zone 9, min temp 20F /
-7C)
