Page "Ecology of California" Paragraph 5

The southern and central Coast Ranges, including the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles region, comprise California's Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub ecoregions.

These contain numerous plant communities, including oak savanna, oak woodland, conifer woodlands, chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and coastal grassland ; these plant communities often occur as a mosaic, with patches of distinct plant communities situated in response to site conditions, including variations in sun exposure ( north or south slopes ), wind exposure, and soils, and variations in rainfall between wetter seaward slopes and the drier rain shadow on the landward slopes.