A phytochorion , in phytogeography , is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phytochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both regions overlap. The region of overlap is called a vegetation tension zone .
34-656: The Appalachian province is a floristic province within the North American Atlantic Region , a floristic region within the Holarctic kingdom . It was historically covered by deciduous forest . The province includes southern Ontario and Quebec , down to central Georgia and Alabama . It includes most of Arkansas , part of eastern Texas , and stretches west through the Ouachita Mountains , Ozark Plateau , eastern Iowa , and southeastern Minnesota . It
68-719: A different phylogenetic trajectory. The merging of the Cape floristic kingdom with the African realm was based by the low endemism of higher taxonomic ranks, which could be found outside the cape region in the rest of Africa. The final major change is the separation of the Saharo-Arabian realm from the Holarctic kingdom, though they admit the northern boundary is not clear, with flora from the Holarctic being found within this area. After publishing their regions, Dr. Hong Qian criticized Liu et al. for
102-569: A large number of endemic taxa . Floristic kingdoms are characterized by a high degree of family endemism, floristic regions by a high degree of generic endemism, and floristic provinces by a high degree of species endemism. Systems of phytochoria have both significant similarities and differences with zoogeographic provinces , which follow the composition of mammal families , and with biogeographical provinces or terrestrial ecoregions , which take into account both plant and animal species. The term "phytochorion" (Werger & van Gils, 1976)
136-511: A political boundary (country boundary, province boundary, etc.), or coastlines. The scheme also aims to follow botanical tradition, in terms of the distribution categories used in works like the Flora Europaea , Flora Malesiana , or Med-Checklist. This approach occasionally leads to departures from political boundaries. Thus the scheme follows Flora Europaea in placing the eastern Aegean islands (such as Lesbos , Samos and Rhodes ) in
170-413: A widely used scheme that builds on Good's work, identified thirty-five floristic regions, each of which is subdivided into floristic provinces, of which there are 152 in all. Critiquing previous attempts for their lack of phylogenetic relationships in the construction of their regions, Liu et al. incorporated distribution data alongside phylogenetic relationships to configure their realms. This led to
204-481: Is a biogeographical system developed by the international Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) organization, formerly the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases. The WGSRPD standards, like other standards for data fields in botanical databases, were developed to promote "the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the world's heritage of biological organisms for
238-639: Is bounded on the north by the Canadian province , on the east and south by the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain province , and on the west by the North American Prairies province . This ecoregion article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This botany article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Floristic province In traditional schemes, areas in phytogeography are classified hierarchically, according to
272-523: Is divided into two botanical continents, 3 Asia-Temperate and 4 Asia-Tropical. The reason for the division was described as largely for convenience. Asia-Temperate borders Europe and Africa; the boundaries are described above. To the south-east, the Indian Subcontinent and the rest of Asia from region 41 Indo-China southwards are placed in Asia-Tropical. Asia-Tropical forms the second part of
306-553: Is especially associated with the classifications according to the methodology of Josias Braun-Blanquet , which is tied to the presence or absence of particular species, mainly in Africa. Taxonomic databases tend to be organized in ways which approximate floristic provinces, but which are more closely aligned to political boundaries, for example according to the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions . In
340-634: Is subdivided into Level 4 "basic recording units", a two letter code is appended; thus "NWG-IJ" represents Irian Jaya , the Indonesian part of New Guinea. Where the Level 3 area is not subdivided, "OO" may be added to create a five letter code to show that the Level 4 unit is identical to the Level 3 area. Thus "BIS" represents the Bismarck Archipelago at Level 3. This area is not subdivided, so "BIS-OO" can be used to represent it at Level 4. As an example,
374-593: The Galapagos . The Antarctic botanical continent consists of continental Antarctica , plus a number of Subantarctic Islands, including the Falkland Islands , South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha . The nine botanical continents (Level 1) are each divided into between two and ten Level 2 regions; see the table above. Each region is given a two digit code, the first digit being that of the Level 1 continent to which it belongs. Altogether, there are 52 regions. Many of
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#1732851299939408-685: The Sinai Peninsula , politically a part of Egypt , which is placed in region 34 Western Asia. To the west, it includes islands grouped as Macaronesia , comprising the Azores , Madeira , the Canary Islands , the Savage Islands and the Cape Verde islands. To the east, it includes Madagascar and other Indian Ocean islands out as far as the island of Rodrigues . The geographical continent of Asia
442-585: The Americas into 7 Northern America and 8 Southern America rather than into the traditional continents of North America and South America . The boundary between Northern America and Southern America was changed from the first edition to the second edition. In the first edition, a south-eastern part of Mexico was included in Southern America, the rest of Mexico being placed in Northern America. This followed
476-535: The Solomon Islands Archipelago), so that Asia-Tropical consists of four regions. The botanical continent of Australasia, as defined by the WGSRPD, consists only of Australia and New Zealand , plus outlying islands. The name was described as having been "controversial", since it has been used to describe larger areas. Other definitions may include Indonesia , New Guinea and many Pacific islands, which
510-604: The WGSRPD divides between 4 Asia-Tropical and 6 Pacific. The WGSRPD groups most islands with a nearby continental landmass, usually the closest but may also make a decision influenced by the floristic similarity (hence the placement of the Azores with Africa and not Europe). The exception is the islands of the central part of the Pacific Ocean , which are placed in a separate botanical continent. The largest of these islands include New Caledonia , Fiji and Hawaii . The WGSRPD divides
544-545: The West Asia region, rather than in Europe where they belong politically as part of Greece. The scheme defines geographic places at four scales or levels, from "botanical continents" down to parts of large countries: Standardized codes are used to represent the units at each level. Numerical codes are used for Levels 1 and 2, alphabetic codes for Levels 3 and 4. For more botanically oriented classifications using phytogeography,
578-482: The World Online (POWO). The scheme is one of a number developed by Biodiversity Information Standards particularly aimed at taxonomic databases . The starting point was the "need for an agreed system of geographical units at approximately 'country' level and upwards for use in recording plant distributions". The scheme represents a compromise between political and botanical divisions. All boundaries either follow
612-502: The author, the apparent characteristics of a community (the dominant life-form ), environment characteristics , the fauna associated, anthropic factors or political - conservationist issues. Several systems of classifying geographic areas where plants grow have been devised. Most systems are organized hierarchically, with the largest units subdivided into smaller geographic areas, which are made up of smaller floristic communities, and so on. Phytochoria are defined as areas possessing
646-574: The benefit of the world at large". The system provides clear definitions and codes for recording plant distributions at four scales or levels, from "botanical continents" down to parts of large countries. The codes may be referred to as TDWG geographical codes . Current users of the system include the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), and Plants of
680-598: The border defined by the administrative units. Novaya Zemlya is excluded from Europe. The south-eastern boundary excludes the Caucasus and Turkey east of the Bosporus , as well as the Eastern Aegean Islands and Cyprus , which although geopolitically part of Europe are considered floristically part of Western Asia. The botanical continent of Africa corresponds closely to the usual geographical definition. It excludes
714-409: The botanical continents are notably different from the traditional geographical continents . In particular, Asia is divided into two botanical continents; 5 Australasia consists only of Australia and New Zealand and small outlying islands; most of the islands in the Pacific Ocean are allocated to 6 Pacific; and the division of the Americas into 7 Northern America and 8 Southern America differs from
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#1732851299939748-503: The boundary of Mesoamerica in Flora Mesoamericana . However, it proved unpopular, especially with Mexican botanists, so in the second edition, all of Mexico is placed in Northern America, which thus consists of Mexico, the contiguous United States plus Alaska, Canada, and Greenland , together with associated offshore islands. As noted above , the Americas are divided into 7 Northern America and 8 Southern America rather than into
782-540: The classification of eight realms organized into two super-realms and each composed of a number of sub-realms. Differences from Takhtajan's floristic kingdoms mainly focus on emphasizing the uniqueness of certain realms that he had as subdivisions within kingdoms. Two examples are separating some kingdoms into two separate realms, as happened to the Paleotropical and Antarctic kingdoms, reasoning that they have been separated form each other for long enough time to constitute
816-522: The complete division of the Level 2 Papuasia region is shown below. 43 Papuasia Organizations and works using the scheme include the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), and the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, which supports Plants of the World Online , published by Kew . Thus in the GRIN Taxonomy for Plants database,
850-486: The inclusion of nonnative distributions in their analyses. In response to this, the group cleaned their data to remove nonnative ranges and reassessed their regions. They suggest that the previous inclusion of exotic species did not significantly affect their mapping and found that the cleaned data revealed the same floristic realms. World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions ( WGSRPD )
884-476: The largest natural units he determined for flowering plants. Good's six kingdoms are subdivided into smaller units, called regions and provinces. The Paleotropical kingdom is divided into three subkingdoms, which are each subdivided into floristic regions. Each of the other five kingdoms are subdivided directly into regions. There are a total of 37 floristic regions. Almost all regions are further subdivided into floristic provinces. Armen Takhtajan (1978, 1986), in
918-678: The late 19th century, Adolf Engler (1844-1930) was the first to make a world map with the limits of distribution of floras, with four major floral regions (realms). His Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien , from the third edition (1903) onwards, also included a sketch of the division of the earth into floral regions. Other important early works on floristics includes Augustin de Candolle (1820), Schouw (1823), Alphonse de Candolle (1855), Drude (1890), Diels (1908), and Rikli (1913). Botanist Ronald Good (1947) identified six floristic kingdoms ( Boreal or Holarctic, Neotropical , Paleotropical , South African , Australian, and Antarctic ),
952-834: The presence of endemic families, genera or species, e.g., in floral (or floristic , phytogeographic ) zones and regions , or also in kingdoms , regions and provinces , sometimes including the categories empire and domain . However, some authors prefer not to rank areas, referring to them simply as "areas", "regions" (in a non hierarchical sense) or "phytochoria". Systems used to classify vegetation can be divided in two major groups: those that use physiognomic-environmental parameters and characteristics and those that are based on floristic (i.e. shared genera and species) relationships. Phytochoria are defined by their plant taxonomic composition, while other schemes of regionalization (e.g., vegetation type , physiognomy , plant formations, biomes ) may variably take in account, depending on
986-408: The regions are geographical divisions of the continents, e.g. 12 Southwestern Europe, 34 Western Asia or 77 South-Central U.S.A. Others are whole countries within the continents, e.g. 36 China, 79 Mexico or 84 Brazil. Some less well-known regions include: Levels 3 and 4 are identified by letter codes. Three letter codes are used for Level 3; e.g. "NWG" stands for New Guinea . Where the Level 3 area
1020-431: The scheme's documentation endorses the use of floristic kingdoms , floristic regions , and floristic provinces , as classified by Armen Takhtajan . The WGSRPD defines nine botanical continents (Level 1), each assigned a single digit code from 1 (Europe) to 9 (Antarctica). Although it is said that "popular concepts of the continents of the world have been maintained, but with one or two slight modifications", some of
1054-470: The traditional North America and South America . The botanical continent of Europe is defined broadly in line with Flora Europaea and with the traditional geographical definition . To the north-west it includes Iceland and Svalbard (Spitsbergen). The southern boundary with Africa encloses most of the Mediterranean islands. The eastern boundary places Crimea and European Russia in Europe, with
Appalachian province - Misplaced Pages Continue
1088-477: The traditional continents of North America and South America, with the precise boundary between the two having changed between the first and second editions of the WGSRPD. Southern America consists of the Caribbean , the WGSRPD definition of Central America (those countries south of Mexico and north of Colombia ), and the traditional geographical continent of South America, together with some offshore islands, such as
1122-478: The traditional geographical continent of Asia. Its western and northern boundaries are formed by the two regions 40 Indian Subcontinent and 41 Indo-China. The southern boundary separates Asia-Tropical from Australia . The south-eastern boundary was changed between the first edition of 1992 and the second edition of 2001. In the first edition, Asia-Tropical was divided into three regions: 40 Indian Subcontinent, 41 Indo-China and 42 Malesia. The eastern boundary of Malesia
1156-641: Was placed between the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands Archipelago , which were put into region 60 Southwest Pacific. It was subsequently argued that it made more "floristic sense" to link the Solomon Islands with the Bismarck Archipelago and the island of New Guinea . Accordingly, in the second edition, a new region 43 Papuasia was created within Asia-Tropical, comprising New Guinea, Near Oceania (the Bismarck Archipelago and
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