flora

noun

flo·​ra ˈflȯr-ə 

plural floras also florae ˈflȯr-ˌē  -ˌī 

1

: a treatise on or list of the plants of an area or period

2

: plant, bacterial, or fungal life

especially : such life characteristic of a region, period, or special environment

fossil flora

intestinal flora

compare fauna

Did you know?

You may be familiar with the common phrase “flora and fauna,” which broadly refers to just about every visible living thing. While fauna specifically refers to the animals of a region, flora represents the plants. Flora made its way into English from New Latin via the Latin word flōra, which comes from the name of the Roman goddess of flowers and the flowering season (the time of the year when flowers bloom). Flora, who was depicted as a beautiful young woman in a long, flowing dress with flowers in her hair, strewing flowers over the earth, was especially known for wildflowers and plants not raised for food. Her name also lives on and continues to thrive through the related words floral, floret, and flourish.

Did you know?

Flora Has Roots in Roman Mythology

Flora means "flower" in Latin, and Flora was the Roman goddess of spring and flowering plants, especially wildflowers and plants not raised for food. She was shown as a beautiful young woman in a long, flowing dress with flowers in her hair, strewing flowers over the earth. English preserves her name in such words as floral, floret, and flourish. A region's flora may range from tiny violets to towering trees. The common phrase "flora and fauna" covers just about every visible living thing.

Synonyms

• foliage
• green
• greenery
• herbage
• leafage
• vegetation
• verdure

Examples of flora in a Sentence

an amazing variety of coastal flora

the floras of different coastal regions

Recent Examples on the Web

Students are encouraged to be inspired by the sights and flora in Charles' garden at Highgrove. —Simon Perry, People.com, 13 Dec. 2024

Test yourself on holiday tunes, festive flora and plane pioneers in this week's American Culture Quiz. —Fox News Staff, Fox News, 6 Dec. 2024

Unlike earlier, more specialized herbivores, these dinosaurs ate various plants and adapted quickly to newly evolving floras. —Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 27 Nov. 2024

The dwelling’s relationship to the park and its native flora and fauna guided much of Helgerson’s brief for the interiors. —David Foxley, Architectural Digest, 20 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, from Latin Flōra, the goddess of flowers and the flowering season, thematicized derivative from the stem of flōr-, flōs "flower, bloom" — more at flower entry 1

Note: In the early modern period, the names of figures from ancient myth or history were featured in book titles as symbols of the subject matter—as Urania for a work on astronomy, Mithridates for a work on languages, and Atlas for a cartographical work. Along such lines the name of the Roman goddess of flowers was used in the title of Latin works dealing with the cultivation of plants, as Flora, seu de florum cultura libri quattuor (Rome, 1633) by the Jesuit scholar Giovanni Battista Ferrari (1584-1655). A book by the Danish physician and naturalist Simon Paulli (1603-80) entitled Flora Danica, Det er: Dansk urtebog ("Danish Flora, that is, a Danish herbal book") (Copenhagen, 1648) described the medicinal plants of Denmark. Here the name Flora is used as a sort of metonym for the plants of the country, a usage also taken up in a Latin poem introducing the work, in which Balthica Flora ("Baltic Flora") is described as bringing forth "swelling sprouts" (turgentia germina) from her bosom. Similar uses of Flora followed, as in the Flora Sinensis ("Chinese Flora") (Vienna, 1656) by the Polish Jesuit Michał Boym (ca. 1612-59). In the eighteenth century flora began to be used generically outside of book titles as a collective name for the plants of a region or habitat. For details. and examples of Flora used metonymically in seventeenth-century Latin prose, see Dominik Beerens, "The Meaning of Flora," Humanistica Lovaniensia, vol. 68, no. 1 (Spring, 2019), pp. 237-49.

First Known Use

1777, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Podcast

Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox!

Kids Definition

flora

noun

flo·​ra ˈflōr-ə 

ˈflȯr-

plural floras also florae ˈflō(ə)r-ˌē 

ˈflȯ(ə)r-,

-ˌī

: plants or plant life especially of a region, period, or environment

Medical Definition

flora

noun

flo·​ra ˈflōr-ə, ˈflȯr- 

plural floras also florae ˈflō(ə)r-ˌē  ˈflȯ(ə)r- 

-ˌī

1

: plant life

especially : the plants characteristic of a region, period, or special environment

fossil flora

compare fauna

2

: the microorganisms (as bacteria or fungi) living in or on the body

the beneficial flora of the intestine

potentially harmful skin flora

floral

ˈflōr-əl, ˈflȯr- 

adjective