sclerophylln.adj.

1911 J. M. Coulter et al. Textbk. Bot. II. iii. 710 In the inclement period they [sc. the leaves of deciduous trees] are as well protected as are the cacti and better protected than are the sclerophylls.

1923 Jrnl. Ecol. 11 287 Northwards..the forest becomes more important, but is soon supplanted by conifer forest.. into which many of the sclerophylls, both shrubs and trees, pass as subordinate members.

1939 Nature 11 Mar. 412/2 The ‘rhenosterbush’..represents the most arid kind of sclerophyll.

1975 Sci. Amer. Jan. 133/1 The text itself considers one by one the 10 vegetational zones, from the evergreen tropical forests to the regions of winter-rain sclerophylls.

1926 A. G. Tansley & T. F. Chipp Aims & Methods Study Vegetation vi. 99 Where the rain mainly falls in the late autumn and winter, but is sufficient in quantity, and there is a hot dry summer, the vegetation is of the evergreen sclerophyll type—trees or shrubs with rather small leathery leaves.

1926 A. G. Tansley & T. F. Chipp Aims & Methods Study Vegetation vi. 100 Sclerophyll regions always abut on desert regions.

1970 Gay & Calaby in Krishna & Weesner Biol. Termites II. ix. 413 Symmetrical dome mounds..are found only occasionally in the sclerophyll woodland and mallee.

1978 Nature 9 Mar. 160/1 A general and sustained increase in sclerophyll vegetation at the expense of drier rain forest types, probably a result of aboriginal man's activities, can explain some..of the evolutionary changes.

1903 W. R. Fisher tr. A. F. W. Schimper Plant-geogr. i. 9 With increasing physiological dryness, the leaves become smaller in surface but proportionally thicker, more leathery (sclerophylly).

1909 E. Warming et al. Oecol. Plants xlvi. 194 Sclerophylly is frequent and is due to thickness of the epidermal wall, as in Adromeda polifolia.

1973 J. Wieser tr. Walter Vegetation of Earth iv. iii. 121 The ecological significance of sclerophylly is..to be seen in the ability of sclerophyllous species to conduct active gaseous exchange..in the presence of an adequate water supply, but to cut it down radically by shutting the stomata when water is scarce.