Toponyms related to plants in transitional vegetation areas: How diversity is conveyed by place-names

Abstract

Abstract Ecotones are areas of biodiversity, across which the complexity of vegetation cover may increase. Diverse forest and shrub communities, belonging to different bioclimatic levels or potential physiognomic types, grow in narrow fringes or meet and integrate in a given area. Place-naming related to the vegetation covering such enclaves tends to be strongly influenced by the toponymic principles of significativeness and exceptionality at a very small scale, although these principles may eventually become blurred. In mountainous countries, especially transition areas, in which altitude, slope and aspect determine variations in the landscape units, the toponymy can reveal interesting information about the distribution of the vegetation and the importance of the plant covers based on the local inhabitants' perceptions over time. We select a number of areas with these characteristics in the Iberian peninsula (Spain) to illustrate how links between natural and cultural landscapes are forged and how place-names are subsequently coined. We examine specifically the Montseny in Catalonia, some comarcas of the pre-Pyrenees, the northern province of Burgos, the southern slopes of the Cantabrian range in the province of Palencia, the sierras of the Central System and the ecotone formed by the deserts and adjacent mountains in Eastern Sierra Nevada. Above all, the 'scale factor' appears to be a highly relevant determinant of the toponymy of these areas. Keywords: place-names and vegetation, natural and cultural landscapes, Iberian peninsula