Maltese Habitats
Maquis
Maquis is a more or less dense, mostly evergreen community where the individual shrubs reach a height of between 1m and 3m. In Malta, a semi-natural maquis develops in relatively inaccessible sites such as the sides and at the foot of escarpments,such as Wied Quanotto shewn on the left, and rdum, while a secondary maquis develops round trees, mainly olives and carobs, planted by man.
The local maquis is characterised by a number of small shrubs principally Carob (Ceratonia siliqua), Olive (Olea Europea),Lentisk(Pistacia lentiscus), Mediterranean Buckthorn(Rhamnus alaternus), Hawthorns(Crataegus. spp) Bay Laurel(Laurus nobilis) and others,
Varoius subtypes of maquis occur, some of which ( e.g. those based upon the Myrtle (Myrtus communis), Spanish Broom (Spartium junceum) and the Sandarac tree (Teraclinis articulata) are very rare and threatened.
