The richness and variety of our vegetation is in line with the variety of climatic and relief environments. In a very simplified way, 10 phytoclimatic environments can be distinguished throughout the Aragonese territory:
- Alpine-snowy.
- Subalpine.
- Wet montane.
- Marojales and Iberian pine forests.
- Oak groves.
- Holm oaks.
- Sardinian and cattle mountains.
- Sabinares.
- Spartal and sasos.
The most outstanding characteristics of them are:
Alpine-snowy.
It corresponds to the rocky and large high mountain crags, above 2,200 m. altitude. Its most characteristic plant group is the alpine meadows. Tree vegetation is scarce because it is found in the supra-forestry domains (timberline).
Subalpine
Its characteristic vegetation is the pine forests of black pine (Pinus uncinata) with rhododendron bushes and the sisó grasses (Festuca gautieri, F. scoparia). It is worth mentioning some typical groupings of the solana vegetation such as the tall junipers (Juniperus communis ssp. Alpina and J. sabina) for being xerophytic plants adapted to the harsh conditions of this environment. They also have a special meaning for being very resistant to fire, which has been suffering almost constantly from shepherds or lightning. This environment is usually located between 1,800 and 2,000 m.
Wet montane.
The most characteristic groups are fir beech, mixed beech (Fagus sylvatica) and yew (Taxus bacatta) forests, wet meadows and mossy pine forests (Pinus sylvestris). To these groups it is necessary to add others of great importance, due to their behavior in the face of fire, but of a drier nature such as dry pine forests, spinal forests and bush trees.
Beech
Thus the spinal cushions of nun or hedgehog (Echinospartium horridum), are very prone to fire due to the amount of dry matter that they preserve within their more or less spherical structure. Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) is a typical shrub of solanas and summits with grasses and without trees. It is considered a pyrophyte species, since the fire stimulates the germination of its seed, difficult to achieve without prior scarification. This circumstance makes it a colonizing plant capable of regenerating the scrub in a few years after a fire.
It is located in the western pyrenees and isolated points of Moncayo and Beceite.
Marojales and Iberian pine forests.
The marojo or rebollo (Quercus pyrenaica) is a tree specialized in the winter humid autumn environment, with soil washing. Its ability to be grazed into rugs that are barely 30 cm in size is known. They can form large continuous masses, practically impenetrable, if they have not been treated or wooded forests when they have undergone silvo pastoral use. It is a species very adapted to fire, which sprouts from a vine and that in groups without any silvicultural treatment contains a high fuel load.
It can be found in the foothills of Moncayo, and in various points of the Iberian Zaragoza (Sierra de Sta. Cruz) and Teruel (Albarracín, Calamocha, Gúdar, etc.).
The Iberian pine forests correspond to those of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) from Albarracín, Rodeo pine (Pinus pinaster) from Albarracín and the Iberian siliceous from Zaragoza and Pinus nigra) from the limestone enclaves of these mountains and from Somontano.
As undergrowth of the Albarracín alba pine forests, the presence of the steppe (Cistus laurifolius) should be highlighted. This rockrose is highly flammable in the summer season and contains a high load of dead fuel.
Oak groves
Between the marojo and the oak there is a range of marcescent leaf oaks adapted to the harsh Aragonese mid-mountain climate.
These oaks are the gall oaks (Quercus faginea, Q. pubescens) that extend throughout the entire middle mountain, both Iberian and pyromancy. It is a species that sprouts very well from the vine, so they usually recover from severe droughts or the fires they endure.
This environment is shared by laricio pine forests, which in many cases are intermingled with gall oaks.
Holm oaks.
The holm oak or oak (Quercus ilex ballota) extends over most of the Aragonese territory, from the middle mountain to the most arid areas of the Ebro depression. This does not exclude it from many Pyrenean solanas, once again demonstrating the such an important influence that the orientation produces in our vegetation. It occurs both in open mountains, where it shares pastoral use, and in low mountains subjected to firewood harvesting. In some enclaves you can see magnificent high mountain stands.
Sardinian and cattle mountains.
Sardinian or thorny bush of kermes oak (Quercus coccifera) symbolizes the harshness of our climate. It extends throughout the depression and now occupies a large part of the old holm oaks that have not been able to overcome the desertification processes of the fires or of excessive exploitation.
The Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) shares this environment, which extends through the warmer parts of the depression.
Sabinares
Sabina albar junipers (Juniperus thurifera) occupy the coldest and driest environments of the depression and the moorlands of Teruel. It usually forms open dough, in many cases with very isolated specimens.
Spartal and sasos.
The Mediterranean steppe is found in environments with little rainfall, summer heat and winter cold, strong insolation and a substrate tending to salinity. They barely show any arboreal and shrub vegetation, being dominant the labia and leguminous bushes. The most typical groupings are albardinales, tomillares, aliagares, sisallares, etc.
Also Aragon enjoys a diverse and varied Nature where passing by plants, animals, Geology, or landscapes we can arrive at a fantastic bestiary that lives in its monuments.
The information will not be complete without a stroll by its three provinces, with shutdown in some of its spectacular landscapes like Ordesa, the Moncayo, Monegros or by opposition the Ebro.
Also you can dedicarte to the intangible ones: from the legend compilation that also does to universal Aragon.