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The chaparral vegetation in Mexico undernonmediterranean climate: the convergence and Madrean-Tethyan hypothesesreconsidered¹

^a Instituto de Ecología, Universidad NacionalAutónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70–275, UNAM,04510 México, D.F.; and ^b UBIPRO,ENEP-Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,Apartado Postal 314, México, 54090, Tlalnepantla,México

A comparative study between an unburned evergreen sclerophyllousvegetation located in south-central Mexico under a wet-summer climate,with mediterranean regions was conducted in order to re-analyzevegetation and plant characters claimed to converge under mediterraneanclimates. The comparison considered floristic composition,plant-community structure, and plant characters as adaptations tomediterranean climates and analyzed them by means of a correspondenceanalysis, considering a tropical spiny shrubland as the external group.We made a species register of the number of species that resproutedafter a fire occurred in 1995 and a distribution map of the evergreensclerophyllous vegetation in Mexico (mexical) under nonmediterraneanclimates.

The Tehuacán mexical does not differ from the evergreensclerophyllous areas of Chile, California, Australia, and theMediterranean Basin, according to a correspondence analysis, whichordinated the Tehuacán mexical closer to the mediterranean areasthan to the external group.

All the vegetation and floristic characteristics of the mexical, aswell as its distribution along the rain-shadowed mountain parts ofMexico, support its origin in the Madrean-Tethyan hypothesis of Axelrod.Therefore, these results allow to expand the convergence paradigm of thechaparral under an integrative view, in which a general trend to ariditymight explain floristic and adaptive patterns detected in theseenvironments.

Key Words: chaparral • convergence • evergreen • mexical • Mexico • sclerophyll • TehuacanValley • vegetation

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