chaparral

plural chaparrals

1. UScountableuncountableA region of shrubs, typically dry in the summer and rainy in the winter. The coast of the Mediterranean is such a region.

   “Look at all the chaparral on California’s coast — it’s all about surviving that kind of fire cycle.”

   2021 February 10, Grayson Haver Currin, quoting Chuck Johnson, “Chuck Johnson’s Ode to What’s Been Lost in California’s Fires”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   It was quite dark when, after an arduous climb, the sheriff made his tortuous way through the chaparral to the point where Anthony Garland should be stationed.

   1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter IV, in The Understanding Heart

   Have you ever been south of Monterey? / Barrancas carve the coastline / And the chaparral flows to the sea / 'Neath waves of golden sunshine

   1973, Al Jardine, “California Saga (California)”, in Holland, performed by The Beach Boys

2. countableuncountableThe foliage of creosote bush, Larrea divaricata, when used as a medicinal herb.

   And above all this folderol / On a bed made of chaparral / She is laid, a coronal placed on her brow

   2005, The Decemberists, “The Infanta”, in Picaresque

1. A neighbourhood in south-east Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
2. A census-designated place in Doña Ana County and Otero County, New Mexico, United States.
3. A town and municipality in Tolima department, Colombia.