Maquis is to the Mediterranean region what Chaparral is to California. This semi-arid shrub land can just take up a narrow band along the shores or extend as deep as several hundred miles. Like in the Levant, where the lack of coastal mountains allows ocean influence to extend deep into the region.
If you've ever had the privilege of traveling to one of the 5 Mediterranean climate regions in the world, you know there’s something special about the perennial dry warmth that infuses the region, spilling over into the culture, the lifestyle and the people. The mild winters and long languid seasons of warmth make for wonderfully relaxed outdoor living.
Landscaping with less water in seasonally dry climates is a great way to help blend your garden with nature.
There are five major Mediterranean climate regions throughout the world. Within these a whole mix of micro-climates, rain levels & sun exposure’s allow some of the planet's most diverse plant communities to thrive.
Many of the plants within Mediterranean climate regions demonstrate similar adaptations to prolonged heat too. Like pale leaf colors or deep green, reflective, glossy foliage to moderate sun exposure. Or intensely fragrant, high oil content in their cellulose to resist burning. Lower pigment flower colors of white, yellow and lavender tend to persist.
These patterns are great for gardeners because they give us some freedom to mix & match to create more resilient plant communities in our gardens without looks getting overwhelmingly chaotic.
How to use Mediterranean plant communities in the garden - from Corsica to California
In early fall of 2026 I was hiking in the Corsican Maquis and had the joy of witnessing many of the trees commonly used in California drought-tolerant landscaping growing in the wild together in an easy and understated plant palette. The most interesting plant community was a semi-edible and medical plant growing around the ruins of a Nuragic structure 5000 years old.
I was surprised to find less of the grape and fig we associate with Roman’s and more Myrtle, arbutus berries and wild garlic. Acorns from the oaks of Corse abounded in various forms. Signalling the way ancient peoples lived here was likely not so different from the acorn & sumac berry (Rhus) diets of our indigenous predecessors in California.
Easy Maquis Plant Palette
A beautiful, easy and understated plant palette, much like the elegance of French style itself (as opposed to the hotter busier climate of the Italian sister which I discuss below). The glamorous and glossy foliage of French Maquis look wonderful against stone and sea, just as we commonly use them in California landscaping.
Arbutus (Strawberry Tree)
Myrtle
Cork oak
Olive
Buckthorn
Spanish lavender
Potentilla
Euonymus
Wild Garlic
Together, this plant palette naturally borders a light pine forest as you move higher up slopes. The community thrives on an annual rainfall of around 20+" a year. Plants maintains a smaller height than we normally see in cultivation thanks to the slightly rugged conditions.
What Can a California Garden Learn from the Mediterranean Maquis?
If you have an existing mature landscape of euonymous, olive & myrtle and want to update it with local California Plants that operate similarly like Ceanothus, Lemonade Berry or Sugar Bush (Rhus) or Manzanita to fill out the sunny edges of understories around oaks. Or California native Buckwheats (Eriogonum various), Sagewort and Purple or Baby Sages (Salvia leucophylla, clevelandii, microphylla etc.).
And What About Mediterranean Plants with even Lower Water Needs?
Further South in the Sardinian Maquis (Sardinia is an Italian island that lies closer to Tunisia) we find a much dryer plant community that survives on as little 10+ inches of rain a year. I was thrilled to see that one of the plants growing aggressively out of Genoan castle walls and old Roman forums was caper!
Caper is a low growing vine with succulent leaves. Its leaf shape suggests it may also be a nitrogen fixer - meaning this plant creates some of its own soil fertility and share nitrogen with neighboring plants. Also popping out of cracks - where moisture and nutrients could collect - were Bay Laurel and fig. In flat areas palm fruits, artemisia species (wormwoods) and sedge grasses (Juncus) grow more fiercely.
How to Care for a seasonally dry Mediterranean Garden
With light seasonal irrigation we can push our gardens into lusher models than our natural rainfall may allow. Carefully reducing irrigation in years of water shortage may shift our garden plants into dry0season dormancies that are more similar to the conditions they would otherwise experience in the wild. Once cooler temperatures return, with a good cutback there’s very little most of these drought-hardy plants will not recover from.