In botany, flora (plural: floras or florae) has two meanings: a flora (with a lower case 'f') refers to the plant life occurring in a particular region, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous plant life, while a Flora (with a capital 'F') refers to a book or other work describing a flora and including aids for the identification of the plants it contains such as botanical keys and line drawings that illustrate the characters that distinguish the different plants. Floristics is the study of floras, including the preparation of Floras.
The goddess Flora is one of the three goddess offices held in the Grange or Patrons of Husbandry. The other goddesses are Pomona, and Ceres.
The term flora comes from Latin language 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. Some classic and modern floras are listed below.
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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 an 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.
Traditionally floras are books, but some are now published on CD-ROM or websites. The area that a flora covers can be either geographically or politically defined. Floras usually require some specialist botanical knowledge to use with any effectiveness.
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 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]
Wikipedia has the following mainly flora categories:
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FLORA, in Roman mythology, goddess of spring-time and flowers, later identified with the Greek Chloris. Her festival at Rome, the Floralia, instituted 2 3 8 B.C. by order of the Sibylline books and at first held irregularly, became annual after 173. It lasted six days (April 28 - May 3), the first day being the anniversary of the foundation of her temple. It included theatrical performances and animal hunts in the circus, and vegetables were distributed to the people. The proceedings were characterized by excessive merriment and licentiousness. According to the legend, her worship was instituted by Titus Tatius, and her priest, the flamen Floralis, by Numa. In art Flora was represented as a beautiful maiden, bedecked with flowers (Ovid, Fasti, v. 183 ff.; Tacitus, Annals, ii. 49).
The term "flora" is used in botany collectively for the plantgrowth of a district; similarly "fauna" is used collectively for the animals.
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Flora
Flora
Flora f. (genitive Flora, plural Floren)
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Flora f.
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[[File:|frame|right|Simplified schematic of an island's flora - all its plant species, highlighted in boxes.]]
In botany, flora (plural: floras or florae) has two meanings.
The first meaning refers to all plant life 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 in an area or time period, with the aim of allowing identification.
The term flora comes from Latin language Flora, the goddess of flowers in Roman mythology. The corresponding term for animal life is fauna.
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 an historic era as in fossil flora.
Bacterial organisms are sometimes included in a flora [1] [2]. Other times, the terms bacterial flora and plant flora are used separately.
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   | ''Flora of China'' - Flora of China @ efloras.org |
| | ''Flora of North America'' - Flora of North America @ efloras.org |
| | Organising committee website - Organization for Flora Neotropica |
| | Flora Europaea - Search the Flora Europaea |
| | Flora Danica - Det Kongelige Bibliotek - Det Kongelige Bibliotek |
| | Flora of NW Europe - Flora of NW Europe > Introduction |
| | ''Flora of São Paulo'' in Brazil - Flora Fanerogâmica do Estado de São Paulo |
| | Flora de Nicaragua - MBG: Research: Flora de Nicaragua |
| | Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica - MBG: Research: Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica |
| | Flora of Australia Online - ABRS | Flora of Australia Online |
| | ''Flora of China'' - Flora of China Home Page |
| | ''Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana'' - MBG: Research: Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana |
| | ''Flora of Ecuador'' - MBG: Research: Ecuador: Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Ecuador |
| | ''Flora of Bhutan'' - Page not found (404 error) - Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh |
| | ''Flora of Nepal'' - Plants of Nepal |
| | ''Flora Zambesiaca'' - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: eFloras - Quick Search |
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