In central Chile today, under a mediterranean-type climate, espino grows in
areas with as little as 100-150 mm mean annual rainfall, and 8-10 months
of drought per year, to subhumid zones with 700-1200mm mean annual
rainfall and only 5 months of drought. Espinales, however, are not as
common as the espino itself. In the northern portion of its range in Chile,
espino is most often found as isolated individuals or groups of trees, and
only rarely in larger populations [Follmann and Matte 1962; Bonilla et al.
1977].
Espinales are usually found in lowlying, non-irrigated sectors of the
Central Valley and eastern slopes of the coastal Cordillera ('secano interior'),
from the Petorca River valley in the north (32 °S) to the Laja River
valley in the south (36°S), which also marks the austral limit of the
subhumid mediterranean-climate zone [Quintanilla 1981; di Castri and
Hajek 1976] (Fig. 1). Although the espino is often considered a phreatophyte