In botany, flora (plural: floras or florae) has two meanings. The first meaning, or flora of an area or time period, refers to all plant life occurring in an area or time period, especially the naturally occurring or indigenous plant life. The second meaning refers to a book or other work which describes the plant species occurring in an area or time period, with the aim of allowing identification. Some classic and modern floras are listed below.

The term flora comes from Latin Flora, the goddess of flowers 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. In relation to all the flora and fauna of a region, it is collectively referred to as biota.

Flora classifications

Plants are grouped into floras depending on region, period, or special environment. Regions can be geographically distinct habitats like mountain vs. flatland. Floras can mean plant life of an 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 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 life is sometimes included in a flora [http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/SNT/noframe/zy198.htm#F. Other times, the terms bacterial flora and plant flora are used separately.

Flora treatises

Traditionally floras are books, but some are now published on CD-ROM or websites. The area that a flora covers may be either geographically or politically defined. They usually require some specialist botanic knowledge to use with any effectiveness.

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

Classic floras

Europe

• Paulli, Simon. Flora Danica. Denmark, 1647.
• Rupp, Heinrich Bernhard. Flora Jenensis Germany, 1718.
• Di Canio, Paolo. Flora Scorer. 1723.
• Linnaeus, Carolus. Flora Suecica. 1745.

India

• Hendrik van Rheede Hortus indicus malabaricus 1683–1703

Indonesia

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

Modern floras

Americas

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 Brasiliensis
• Flora of Chile
• Flora of Costa Rica
• Flora of Ecuador
• Flora of Guatemala
• 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.
• 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 0-9651-3855-0
• 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

China and Japan

• Flora of China.
• Flora of Japan

Southeast Asia

• Flora of the Malay Peninsula
• Florae Siamensis Enumeratio
• Flora Malesiana (1984-ongoing) About Flora Malesiana.

Indian region and Sri Lanka

• Flora of Bhutan
• Flora of Nepalthe Presidency of Madras by J.S. Gamble (1915-36)
• 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

Australasia

• 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.; E 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.
• 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 0-477-001642-1.
• 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

• 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. ^*
• Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie
• Flore de la Polynésie Française (J. Florence, vol. 1 & 2, 1997 & 2004)

Europe

British Isles

• Stace, Clive Anthony, and Hilli Thompson (illustrator). A New Flora of the British Isles. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-5215-8935-5.
• 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

Africa and Madagascar

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

See also

• Biome — a major regional group of distinctive plant and animal communities.
• Vegetation — a general term for the plant life of a region.
• Fauna
• Flora (microbiology)
• Herbal
• Pharmacopoeia

External links

• Fauna & Flora International
• 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

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