Flora Definition

The term ‘flora’ is defined as all the naturally occurring native plants of a particular region. Flora indicates all forms of plant life, more generally used to represent the plant life of a particular place.

• Sometimes, the term ‘microflora’ or ‘gut flora’ is used to represent the naturally occurring microorganisms, mainly, bacteria and fungi, in various organisms.
• The word, ‘flora’ is taken from the Latin name of the Goddess of plants in the Roman mythology who was named ‘Flora’.
• Different plants are classified into various floras on the basis of their region, also known as floristic regions, climate, environmental conditions, and period.
• The floristic region might be habitats like mountains and valleys, whereas the period might be either historic like fossil flora or present. They are further subdivided according to their particular environments.
• Some of the commonly used flora include; native flora, agricultural and horticultural flora, and weed flora.
• The native flora is native or indigenous to a particular area. This means that the plants occur naturally in these areas.
• Agricultural or horticultural flora, also known as garden flora, includes the plants that are grown by humans.
• Weed flora is a group of plants that are unnecessary and undesirable. However, some plants kept in the weed flora traditionally might be beneficial to other ecosystems.
• Besides, the term Flora is also used for the documentation of plants of a particular are or a time period. These were traditionally published in the form of books, but nowadays, they are available on websites.