Mediterranean Climate

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In most of San Francisco, which is definitely mediterranean in climate, olive trees grow, but don't fruit well or at all. We're next to a band of ocean that is colder at the coast than in the open sea, so we have an exceptionally cold summer breeze, often bearing fog.

 

Besides the Mediterranean Plant Society's website, my favorite source for information delineating the extent of mediterranean climate, and differentiating among the expressions of it, is Plant Life in the World's Mediterranean Climates, by Peter R. Dallman. It has climate maps for each of the regions, which you can compare to see the differences in temperature and rainfall patterns.  It also includes much information, both in words and pictures, on the native plants of each, and how plants have adapted to these similar climatic regions.

 

Pam Peirce

SF, CA USA