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Flora (pl.: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring native plants. The corresponding term for animals is fauna, and for fungi, it is funga. [1] Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora as in the terms gut flora or skin flora for purposes of specificity.
Simplified schematic of an island's fauna – all its animal species, highlighted in boxes. Fauna (pl.: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are flora and funga, respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as biota.
Definitions: Natural heritage refers to natural features, geological and physiographical formations and delineated areas that constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants and natural sites of value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty.
Key findings, such as the sharp difference in fauna either side of the Wallace Line, and the sharp difference that existed between North and South America prior to their relatively recent faunal interchange, can only be understood in this light. Otherwise, the field of biogeography would be seen as a purely descriptive one.
Further variations include rock pools, sand banks, mudflats, brackish lagoons, sandy and pebbly beaches, and seagrass beds, all supporting their own flora and fauna. The benthic zone or seabed provides a home for both static organisms, anchored to the substrate , and for a large range of organisms crawling on or burrowing into the surface.
A lion (Panthera leo).Lions are an example of charismatic megafauna, a group of wildlife species that are especially popular in human culture.. Wildlife refers to undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. [1]
The differences between fungi and other organisms regarded as plants had long been recognised by some; Haeckel had moved the fungi out of Plantae into Protista after his original classification, [8] but was largely ignored in this separation by scientists of his time.
The distinction between vegetation (the general appearance of a community) and flora (the taxonomic composition of a community) was first made by Jules Thurmann (1849). Prior to this, the two terms (vegetation and flora) were used indiscriminately, [4] [5] and still are in some contexts.