The first meaning, or flora of an area, refers to the collection of plant life occurring in that area, 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, with the aim of allowing identification.
The term comes from Flora , the Goddess of Flower s in Roman Mythology .
The corresponding term for Animal life is Fauna and Biota is the combination of the ''flora'', ''fauna'' and other forms of Life such as Fungi .
The flora of an area may be subdivided by many characteristics.
:. The native and indigenous flora of an area is often the subject of greatest interest.
:. The plants that are deliberately grown may sometimes be studied.
:. This refers to non-native and introduced plants, that are capable of surviving in an area by themselves. Often these are regarded as undesirable and are studied in efforts to control or eradicate them.
Traditionally floras are Book s, but some are now published on CD-ROM or Website s. 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.
;Europe
;Indonesia
;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''. .
;Central & South America
- ''Flora Brasiliensis''
- ''Flora of Chile''
- ''Flora of Costa Rica''
- ''Flora of Ecuador''
- ''Flora of Guatemala''
- ''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
;China and Japan
- ''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 Nepal
- Flora of Ceylon
- Flora of the Bombay Presidency by T. Cooke (1901-8)
- Flora of the 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
- Flora of New Zealand
- Flora of Australia
- Flora Vitiensis Nova, a New Flora of Fiji
;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''. , 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
- Flore du Gabón
- Flore de Cameroun
- Flora of Tropical Africa
- Flora Capensis
- Flora Zambesiaca
- Flora of South Africa
- Flore du Rwanda
- Flore de Madagascar et des Comores
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