chap·ar·ral   (shāp'ə-rāl')    n.   Ecology A biome characterized by hot dry summers and cool moist winters and dominated by a dense growth of mostly small-leaved evergreen shrubs, as that found in the foothills of California. A dense thicket of shrubs and small trees. [Spanish, from chaparro, evergreen oak, from Basque txapar, diminutive of saphar, thicket.]

Chaparral

Cha`par*ral"\, n. [Sp., fr. chaparro an evergeen oak.]

1. A thicket of low evergreen oaks.

2. An almost impenetrable thicket or succession of thickets of thorny shrubs and brambles.

Chaparral cock; fem. Chaparral hen (Zo["o]l.), a bird of the cuckoo family (Geococcyx Californianus), noted for running with great speed. It ranges from California to Mexico and eastward to Texas; -- called also road runner, ground cuckoo, churea, and snake killer .

chaparral