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Plant species diversity

Simplified schematic of an island's flora - all its plant species, highlighted in boxes.

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animal life is fauna. Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as fungi are collectively referred to as biota.

Etymology[link]

"Flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology.

Flora classifications[link]

Plants are grouped into floras based on region, period, special environment, or climate. Regions can be geographically 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:

• 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: weedy 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.

Bacterial organisms are sometimes included in a flora,^{[1] [2]} and sometimes the terms bacterial flora and plant flora are used separately.

Flora treatises[link]

Floristic regions in Europe according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch

Plants

A fossil leaf from the extinct Comptonia columbiana, 48.5 million years old. Klondike Mountain Formation, Republic, Ferry County, Washington, USA. Stonerose Interpretive Center.

A flora treatise, also known simply as a Flora, usually requires some specialist botanical knowledge to use with any effectiveness. Traditionally flora treatises are books, but some are now published on CD-ROM or websites.

It is said that the Flora Sinensis by the Polish Jesuit Michał Boym was the first book that used the name "Flora" in this meaning, a book covering the plant world of a region.^[3] However, despite its title it covered not only plants, but also some animals of the region.

A flora treatise often contains diagnostic keys. Often these are dichotomous keys, which require the user to repeatedly examine a plant, and decide which one of two alternatives given in the flora best applies to the plant.

A compendium of world floras has been compiled by David Frodin.^[4]

Classic floras[link]

Europe

• Flora Londinensis, William Curtis. England 1777- 1798
• Flora Graeca, John Sibthorp. (England) 1806 - 1840
• Flora Danica, Simon Paulli. Denmark, 1847.
• Flora Jenensis, Heinrich Bernhard Rupp Germany, 1718.
• Flora Suecica, Carolus Linnaeus. 1745.

India

• Hortus indicus malabaricus, Hendrik van Rheede 1683–1703

Indonesia

• Flora Javae, Carl Ludwig Blume and Joanne Baptista Fischer. 1828.

Iran

• Flora of Iran

Pakistan

• Flora of Pakistan

China

• Flora Sinensis, Michał Boym, 1656^[3]

America

• Flora Brasiliensis, Martius, Endlicher, et al. 1840 to 1906

Modern floras[link]

Americas[link]

Caribbean

• Britton, N. L., and Percy Wilson. Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands — Volume V, Part 1: Botany of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands: Pandanales to Thymeleales. New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1924.

Central & South America

• Flora of São Paulo in Brazil
• Flora de Chile
• Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica
• Flora of Ecuador
• Flora of Guatemala
• Flora de Nicaragua
• Flora of Peru
• Flora of the Guianas
• Flora of Panama
• Flora del Paraguay
• Flora of Suriname
• Flora Mesoamericana (1994-ongoing) Introduction
• Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana
• Flora Neotropica (1968-ongoing) Organising committee website.

North America

• Flora of North America
• Kearney, Thomas H. Arizona Flora. University of California Press, 1940.
• Hickman, James C., editor. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press, 1993.
• Hultén, Eric. Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories: A Manual of the Vascular Plants. Stanford University Press, 1968.
• Radford, Albert E. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
• Hitchcock, C. Leo, and Arthur Cronquist. Flora of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, 1973.
• Chadde, Steve W., and Steve Chadde. A Great Lakes Wetland Flora. 2nd ed. Pocketflora Press, 2002. ISBN 0-9651385-5-0
• P. D. Strausbaugh and Earl L. Core. Flora of West Virginia. 2nd ed. Seneca Books Inc., 1964. ISBN 0-89092-010-9
• Ann Fouler Rhoads and Timothy A. Block. The Plants of Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8122-3535-5
• Nathaniel Lord Britton and Hon. Addison Brown. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada. In three volumes. Dover Publications, 1913, 1970. ISBN 0-486-22642-5

Asia[link]

Taxus chinensis, Chinese Yew tree. Morton Arboretum

East Asia

• Flora of the People's Republic of China
• Flora of China in eFloras
• Flora of Japan
• Flora of Taiwan

Southeast Asia

• Flora of Thailand
• Florae Siamensis Enumeratio
• Flora Malesiana (1951-ongoing)
• Flora of the Malay Peninsula
• Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêt-Nam

Indian region and Sri Lanka

• Flora of Bhutan
• Flora of the Presidency of Madras by J.S. Gamble (1915–36)
• Flora of Nepal
• Bengal Plants by D. Prain (1903)
• Flora of the upper Gangetic plains by J. F. Duthie (1903–29)
• Botany of Bihar and Orissa by H.H. Haines (1921–25)
• Flora of British India (1872–1897) by Sir J.D. Hooker

Middle East and western Asia

• Flora of Turkey
• Flora Iranica
• Flora Palaestina:
  • M. Zohary (1966). Flora Palaestina part 1.
  • M. Zohary (1972). Flora Palaestina part 2.
  • N. Feinbrun (1978). Flora Palaestina part 3.
  • N. Feinbrun (1986). Flora Palaestina part 4.
  • A. Danin, (2004). Distribution Atlas of Plants in the Flora Palaestina Area (Flora Palaestina part 5).
  • Online updates: http://flora.huji.ac.il/browse.asp?lang=en&action=showfile&fileid=14005

Australasia[link]

A closing venus fly trap.

• Flora of Australia
• Flora of New Zealand series:
  • Allan, H.H. 1961, reprinted 1982. Flora of New Zealand. Volume I: Indigenous Tracheophyta - Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledons. ISBN 0-477-01056-3.
  • Moore, L.B.; Edgar, E. 1970, reprinted 1976. Flora of New Zealand. Volume II: Indigenous Tracheophyta - Monocotyledons except Graminae. ISBN 0-477-01889-0.
  • Healy, A.J.; Edgar, E. 1980. Flora of New Zealand Volume III. Adventive Cyperaceous, Petalous & Spathaceous Monocotyledons. ISBN 0-477-01041-5.
  • Webb, C.J.; Sykes, W.R.;Garnock-Jones, P.J. 1988. Flora of New Zealand Volume IV: Naturalised Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, Dicotyledons. ISBN 0-477-02529-3.
  • Edgar, E.; Connor, H.E. 2000. Flora of New Zealand Volume V: Grasses. ISBN 0-478-09331-4.
  • Volumes I-V: First electronic edition, Landcare Research, June 2004. Transcribed by A.D. Wilton and I.M.L. Andres.
  • Breitwieser I., Brownsey P., Ford K., Glenny D., Heenan P., Wilton A. eds. (2010-2011) Flora of New Zealand. Online Edition. [1].
• Galloway, D.J. 1985. Flora of New Zealand: Lichens. ISBN 0-477-01266-3.
• Croasdale, H.; Flint, E.A. 1986. Flora of New Zealand: Desmids. Volume I. ISBN 0-477-02530-7.
• Croasdale, H.; Flint, E.A. 1988. Flora of New Zealand: Desmids. Volume II. ISBN 0-477-01353-8.
• Croasdale, H.; Flint, E.A.;Racine, M.M. 1994. Flora of New Zealand: Desmids. Volume III. ISBN 0-477-01642-1.
• Sykes, W.R.; West, C.J.; Beever, J.E.; Fife, A.J. 2000. Kermadec Islands Flora - Special Edition. ISBN 0-478-09339-X.

Pacific Islands[link]

• Flora Vitiensis Nova, a New Flora of Fiji
• Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai‘i, Warren L. Wagner and Derral R. Herbst (1991) + suppl. [2]
• Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie
• Flore de la Polynésie Française (J. Florence, vol. 1 & 2, 1997 & 2004)

Europe[link]

British Isles

• Morton, O.1994. Marine Algae of Northern Ireland. Ulster Museum, Belfast. ISBN 0-900761-28-8
• Stace, Clive Anthony, and Hilli Thompson (illustrator). A New Flora of the British Isles. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-521-58935-5.
• Beesley, S. and J. Wilde. Urban Flora of Belfast. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University of Belfast, 1997.
• Killick, John, Roy Perry and Stan Woodell. Flora of Oxfordshire. Pisces Publications, 1998. ISBN 1-874357-07-2.
• Bowen, Humphry. The Flora of Dorset. Pisces Publications, 2000. ISBN 1-874357-16-1.
• Flora Celtica Plants and people in Celtic Europe
• Flora Europaea at the site of The Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh Flora Europaea
• Flora of Europe
• Flora iberica
• Flora of Acores
• Flora Danica
• Flora of Romania

Africa and Madagascar[link]

• Flore du Gabon
• Flore du Cameroun
• Flora of Tropical Africa
• Flora of Tropical East Africa
• Flora Capensis
• Flora Zambesiaca
• Flora of South Africa
• Flore du Rwanda
• Flore de Madagascar et des Comores

Flora on Wikipedia[link]

An aloe vera plant.

Blueberry plant with berries.

Wikipedia has the following mainly flora categories:

• Flora by continent
• Flora by country
• Flora by region

Australasia

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Europe

South
America

North
America

See also[link]

	Environment portal
	Ecology portal
	Earth sciences portal
	Biology portal

• The Plant List
• Biome — a major regional group of distinctive plant and animal communities.
• Vegetation — a general term for the plant life of a region.
• Fauna
• Fauna and Flora Preservation Society
• Herbal
• Horticultural flora
• Pharmacopoeia

References[link]

1. ^ http://webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=flora
2. ^ http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/SNT/noframe/zy198.htm#F
3. ^ ^{a b} Flora Sinensis (access to the facsimile of the book, its French translation, and an article about it)
4. ^ Frodin, David G. 2001. Guide to Standard Floras of the World. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-79077-2.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Flora

• eFloras — a collection of on-line floras
• Chilebosque — checklist of Chilean native flora
• Flora of NW Europe with descriptions and a quiz to test your knowledge
• Flora of Australia Online
• Flora of New Zealand Series Online

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