Flora is all the

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to Energy transformation, convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel ...

plant

life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples, also referred to as First people, Aboriginal people, Native people, or autochthonous people, are culturally distinct ethnic groups who are native to a particular place. The term ' ...

)

native plants.

Sometimes

bacteria Bacteria (; common noun bacteria, singular bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typ ...

and

fungi A fungus (plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters, or words taken from the full ...

fungi

are also referred to as flora, as in the terms ''

gut flora Gut or guts may refer to: Anatomy * Abdomen, the region of the body below the thorax but above the pelvic region * Beer gut, slang for an obese stomach * Gastrointestinal tract, the system of digestive organs in humans and other animals * Hu ...

'' or ''

skin flora The term skin flora, also commonly called skin microbiota, refers to ( of s) that reside on the , typically . Many of them are of which there are around 1,000 species upon human skin from nineteen .Pappas S. (2009)Your Body Is a Wonderland ... ...

''.

Etymology

The word "flora" comes from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken in the area around Rome, known as Latium. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became ...

Latin

name of

Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms ' ...

, the

goddess A goddess is a female Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, that produces non-mobile ovum, ova (egg cells). Barring rare medical conditions, most female mammals, including female humans, have two X chromo ...

goddess

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom Image:Cerisier du Japon Prunus serrulata.jpg, Cherry blossoms in Paris in full bloom. In botany, blossoms are the flowers of stone fruit fruit tree, trees (genus ''Prunus'') and of some other plan ...

flower

s, and fertility in

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the Latin literature, literature and Roman art, visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the moder ...

. The technical term "flora" is then derived from a

metonymy Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from the Greek language, Greek , , "a cha ...

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. The distinction between

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to Energy transformation, convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular re ...

(the general appearance of a community) and flora (the taxonomic composition of a community) was first made by

Jules Thurmann Jules Thurmann (5 November 1804, Neuf-Brisach in Haut-Rhin, France – 25 July 1855, Porrentruy) was an Alsatian French-Swiss geologist and botanist. He studied at the college in Porrentruy, then continued his education at the University of ...

(1849). Prior to this, the two terms were used indiscriminately.Martins, F. R. & Batalha, M. A. (2011). Formas de vida, espectro biológico de Raunkiaer e fisionomia da vegetação. In: Felfili, J. M., Eisenlohr, P. V.; Fiuza de Melo, M. M. R.; Andrade, L. A.; Meira Neto, J. A. A. (Org.). ''Fitossociologia no Brasil: métodos e estudos de caso.'' Vol. 1. Viçosa: Editora UFV. p. 44-85

Earlier version, 2003

Classifications

Plants are grouped into floras based on region ( Phytochorion, floristic regions), period, special environment, or climate. Regions can be distinct

habitat Ibex in an alpine habitat In ecology Ecology (from el, οἶκος, "house" and el, -λογία, label=none, "study of") is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. ...

habitat

s 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:

weed A weed is a plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all ...

weed

y species,

invasive species An invasive species is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and negatively alters its new environment. Although their spread can have beneficial aspects, invasive species adversely affect the invaded habitat Ibex in an ...

(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

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

Documentation

The flora of a particular area or time period can be documented in a publication also known as a "

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms ' ...

" (often capitalized as "Flora" to distinguish the two meanings when they might be confused). Floras may require specialist botanical knowledge to use with any effectiveness. Traditionally they are

book A book is a medium for recording information Information is processed, organised and structured data Data (; ) are individual facts, statistics, or items of information, often numeric. In a more technical sense, data are a set of v ...

book

s, but some are now published on

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a pre-pressed optical compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital Digital usually refers to something using digits, particularly binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital ...

CD-ROM

website A website (also written as web site) is a collection of web page A web page (or webpage) is a hypertext Hypertext is text displayed on a or other with references () to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hyperte ...

website

Simon Paulli Simon Paulli (6 April 1603 – 25 April 1680), was a Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane", see Demographics of Denmark * Danish people or Dan ...

's ''Flora Danica'' of 1648 is probably the first book titled "Flora" to refer to the plant world of a certain region. It mainly describes medicinal plants growing in Denmark. The ''

Flora Sinensis ''Flora Sinensis'' is one of the first European natural history books about China, published in Vienna in 1656 Events January–June * January 17 Events Pre-1600 * 38 BC – Octavian divorces his wife Scribonia (wife of Augus ...

'' by the Polish

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , caption = Christogram A Christogram (Latin ') is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbolism ...

Michał Boym Michał Piotr BoymHis first name is also often rendered as ''Michele'', ''Michel'', ''Miguel'', ''Michael Peter'' (;Transliterated also (using Wade-Giles) as ''Pu Che-yuen Mi-ko'' c. 1612 – 1659) was a Polish Jesuit missionary to China, scienti ...

is another early example of a book titled "Flora".Flora Sinensis
(access to the facsimile of the book, its French translation, and an article about it) However, despite its title it covered not only plants, but also some animals of the region, that is China and India. A published flora 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 best applies to the plant.

References

External links

''eFloras'' — a collection of on-line floras

Flora of NW Europe
with descriptions and a quiz to test your knowledge

Flora of New Zealand Series Online
{{Authority control Botanical nomenclature Ecology terminology Habitat Organisms

Etymology

Classifications

Documentation

See also

References

External links