Flora

Flora (pl.: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. The corresponding term for animals is fauna, and for fungi, it is funga.^[1] Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora as in the terms gut flora or skin flora.^[2]^[3]^[4]

For other uses, see Flora (disambiguation).

Etymology[edit]

The word "flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology.^[5] ^[6]The technical term "flora" is then derived from a metonymy of this goddess at the end of the sixteenth century. It was first used in poetry to denote the natural vegetation of an area, but soon also assumed the meaning of a work cataloguing such vegetation. Moreover, "Flora" was used to refer to the flowers of an artificial garden in the seventeenth century.^[7]

The distinction between vegetation (the general appearance of a community) and flora (the taxonomic composition of a community) was first made by Jules Thurmann (1849). Prior to this, the two terms were used interchangeably.^[8]^[9]

Native flora. The native and indigenous flora of an area.

Agricultural and horticultural flora (garden flora). The plants that are deliberately grown by humans.

Weed flora. Traditionally this classification was applied to plants regarded as undesirable and studied in efforts to control or eradicate them. Today the designation is less often used as a classification of plant life since it includes three different types of plants: species, invasive species (that may or may not be weedy), and native and introduced non-weedy species that are agriculturally undesirable. Many native plants previously considered weeds have been shown to be beneficial or even necessary to various ecosystems.

weedy

Plants are grouped into floras based on region (floristic regions), period, special environment, or climate. Regions can be distinct habitats like mountain vs. flatland. Floras can mean plant life of a historic era as in fossil flora. Lastly, floras may be subdivided by special environments:

— a major regional group of distinctive plant and animal communities

Biome

Fauna

Fauna and Flora Preservation Society

– a term equivalent to flora for fungi

Funga

Herbal

Horticultural flora

Megaflora

Pharmacopoeia

The Plant List

— a general term for the plant life of a region

Vegetation

World Flora Online

eFloras — a collection of on-line floras

Archived 2011-06-09 at the Wayback Machine

Chilebosque — checklist of Chilean native flora

with descriptions and a quiz to test your knowledge