flora

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Flora (disambiguation) .

Simplified scheme of the flora of an island with all its plant species

As Flora (also plant life ) is the stock of plant taxa (eg. As families , genera , species and subspecies ) of a given region or the systematic description of a whole (see, however. Referred vegetation ). Directories in which the flora of an area is listed, often with an identification key and images, are also called flora . This meaning is probably secondary to the meaning “flora of a certain region”.

The name Flora is derived from the Latin name Flora , the Roman goddess of flowers and youth. Since the end of the 16th century at the latest, this goddess has been used metonymically, first in poetry, and later in other texts, for the flora of a certain region. The flora stands opposite the animal world - the fauna - named after the Roman goddess fauna . Flora also generally refers to organisms with an autotrophic diet.

A flora kingdom is that large area that is characterized by an independent vegetation character and an independent history ( phylogenesis ) of the local flora and thus also houses plant species and higher plant taxa that are not found in any other area. Species that belong together represent a floral element - this can refer to a large area of ​​flora or only to a sub-area - a florence zone ( vegetation zone ).

The fact that bacteria used to be assigned to the plant classification has been preserved in the term “ bacterial flora ” (as the entirety of all bacteria colonizing a certain habitat ).

For a long time, mushrooms were also assigned to the plant kingdom. In 1969 Robert Whittaker granted them their own realm , the Regnum "Fungi". However, the term " funga " instead of "mushroom flora" has not (yet) finally caught on.

See also

• Alpine flora

Web links

Commons : Flora  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Flora  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wiktionary: flora  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• 572 picture panels from Flora of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in words and pictures for school and house by Otto Wilhelm Thomé (1885–1905)
• FloraWeb: Data and information on wild plants and vegetation in Germany
• Society for the Research of Flora in Germany e. V.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dominik Berrens: The Meaning of Flora . In: Humanistica Lovaniensia. Journal of Neo-Latin Studies . tape 68 , no. 1 , March 21, 2019, ISSN  2593-3019 , p. 237–249 , doi : 10.30986 / 2019.237 ( humanistica.be [accessed March 25, 2019]).
2. ↑ Dominik Berrens: The Meaning of Flora . In: Humanistica Lovaniensia. Journal of Neo-Latin Studies . tape 68 , no. 1 , March 21, 2019, ISSN  2593-3019 , p. 237–249 , doi : 10.30986 / 2019.237 ( humanistica.be [accessed March 25, 2019]).