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Flora Information

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenousnative plant life.

Contents

Etymology

The term "flora" comes from Latin language Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology. The corresponding term for animal life is fauna. Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as fungi are collectively referred to as biota. Some classic and modern floras are listed below.

Flora classifications

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:

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

Flora treatises

Main article: Flora treatise 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

Europe
India
Indonesia
Iran
Pakistan
China
America

Modern floras

America

Caribbean
Central & South America
North America

Asia

Taxus chinensis, Chinese Yew tree. Morton Arboretum
East Asia
Southeast Asia
Indian region and Sri Lanka
Middle East and western Asia

Australasia

A closing venus fly trap.

Pacific Islands

Europe

British Isles

Africa and Madagascar

Flora on Wikipedia

An aloe vera plant. Blueberry plant with berries.

Wikipedia has the following mainly flora categories:

Australasia Africa Antarctica Asia Europe South America North America

See also

Environment portal
Ecology portal
Earth sciences portal
Biology portal

References

  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 9780521790772.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Flora
Elements of nature
Universe
Earth
Weather
Environment
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Noun

flȏra f. (Cyrillic spelling фло̑ра)
  1. flora
Declension declension of flora singular plural nominative flora flore genitive flore flora dative flori florama accusative floru flore vocative floro flore locative flori florama instrumental florom florama

from: Wiktionary: flora,
Tue Apr 24 05:22:36 2012