Stony soil: Lithic Leptosol

Stony soil developed from schists and slates, under shrubs (Calicotome villosa) in Sierra Morena (SW, Spain). Stony soils are frequent in Mediterranean soils. According to Poesen and Lavee (1994, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0341-8162(94)90050-7), abundant rock fragments characterize more than 60% of soils from the Mediterranean area. Just in the Iberian Peninsula, for example, very large rock fragment contents between 41% and 90% have been reported.