Indigenous plants

Among indigenous plants , including native plant called mean those plant taxa that are native to a particular area, ie that have spread there without human influence and appear and reproduce there permanently.

A distinction is made between those plant species that came to the area through human influence, namely:

• Archaeophytes before 1492
• Neophytes from 1492
• Crops

In many cases it is very difficult to secure the classification of a plant species in the categories mentioned. The seemingly arbitrary separation after 1492 refers to the discovery of America , after which an increased exchange of flora between the Old World and the New World was made possible and, above all, many cultivated plants were actively distributed worldwide.

The questions about the composition of the flora of bygone eras are dealt with in the research areas vegetation history and archaeobotany .