<P> Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico . It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild, wet winters and hot dry summers) and wildfire, featuring summer - drought - tolerant plants with hard sclerophyllous evergreen leaves, as contrasted with the associated soft - leaved, drought - deciduous, scrub community of coastal sage scrub, found below the chaparral biome . Chaparral covers 5 percent of the state of California, and associated Mediterranean shrubland an additional 3.5 percent . The name comes from the Spanish word for scrub oak, chaparro . </P> <P> In its natural state, chaparral is characterized by infrequent fires, with intervals ranging between 10--15 years to over a hundred years . Mature chaparral (stands that have been allowed greater intervals between fires) is characterized by nearly impenetrable, dense thickets (except the more open chaparral of the desert). These plants are highly flammable during the late summer and autumn months when conditions are characteristically hot and dry . They grow as woody shrubs with thick, leathery, and often small leaves, contain green leaves all year (evergreen), and are typically drought resistant (however, see Venturas et al. 2016). After the first rains following a fire, the landscape is dominated by small flowering herbaceous plants, known as fire followers, which die back with the summer dry period . </P>

Where is the chaparral biome located in the world