Earth Science ->Biosphere -> Life -> Flora
The biosphere is the outermost part of the planet's shell — including air, land, surface rocks, and water — within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. The biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the other earth spheres: lithosphere(all nonliving things), hydrosphere (water), and atmosphere (air).
Living things are divided into three categories at their basest level: flora (plants), fauna (animals), and fungi (parasites).
In botany, flora (plural: floras or florae) has two meanings. The first meaning, or flora of an area or of time period, refers to all plant life occurring in an area or time period, 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 or time period, with the aim of allowing identification.
The term flora comes from the Latin language. Flora is the goddess of flowers in Roman mythology. The corresponding term for animal life is fauna. Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as fungi are collectively referred to as biota. In relation to all the flora and fauna of a region, it is collectively referred to as biota.
Flora classifications
Plants are grouped into floras based on region, period, special environment, or climate. Regions can be geographically distinct habitats like mountain vs. flatland. Floras can mean plant life of an historic era as in fossil flora. Lastly, floras may be subdivided by special environments:
Native flora: The native and indigenous flora of an area.
Agricultural and garden flora: The plants that are deliberately grown by humans.
Weed flora:: Traditionally this classification was applied to plants regarded as undesirable, and studied in efforts to control or eradicate them. Today the designation is less often used as a classification of plant life, since it includes three different types of plants: weedy flora species, invasive flora species (that may or may not be weedy), and native and introduced non-weedy flora species that are agriculturally undesirable. Many native plants previously considered weeds have been shown to be beneficial or even necessary to various ecosystems.
Bacterial organisms are sometimes included in a flora. Other times, the terms bacterial flora and plant flora are used separately.
How many plant species of flora are there?
For years botanists and conservationists employed an estimate that there are 230–270,000 species of Flowering Plants on Earth. However, recent estimates put that figure about 40% higher. The most recent estimates indicate that the world has about 422,000 species of flowering plants.
Somewhere around 94,400 globally threatened species have been identified that are currently threatened with extinction. Scientists also believe there are thousands of flora species that have yet to be identified.
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Flora
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Here is a table of the numbers of plant species, or flora, found around the world, broken down by country. |
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Earth Science 
