Difference Between Flora and Fauna

Main Difference – Flora vs Fauna

Flora and Fauna refer to plants and animals, respectively. If we look at the detailed definitions of these two terms, Flora is the plant life found in a particular region whereas fauna is the animal life in a particular region or time. Thus, the main difference between flora and fauna is that flora refers to plant life whereas fauna refers to animal life. The term fauna and flora are used together to discuss the biodiversity of a particular region.

What is Flora

Flora is the plant life that can be found in a specific area or time. The term flora is often used to refer to indigenous plants. The term flora comes from the Latin language and is derived from the name of the goddess of the flowers in Roman mythology.

Plants can be grouped into floras based on region, climate, period or special environment. Regions can be various geographical regions like flatland or mountains. Native flora is the indigenous flora of a particular region. Garden flora, also known as agricultural flora refers to the plants grown by humans. Weed flora refers to plant species that are deemed undesirable; they are studied in an effort to control or eliminate them. Since flora basically refers to plants, ability to produce their own food, inability to move from one place to another can be named as main features of flora.

Flora can also refer to a publication of the scientific description of plant life found in a particular area or a time period.

What is Fauna

Fauna refers to all the animals living in a particular period or a region. For example, the term New Zeeland refers to all the animals that are found in New Zeeland. The term Fauna is also derived from Latin. In Roman Mythology Fauna was the sister of Faunus, a good spirit of the forest and plains.

Fauna can be categorized into various subdivisions. Some of these subdivisions include,

Cryofauna – animals that live in ice or live very close to ice.

Microfauna – include the smallest of the animals and microorganisms.

Megafauna – include the largest animals

Mesofauna – include macroscopic invertebrates that live in soil

Avifauna – refers to birds

Piscifauna – refers to fish

Since fauna refers to animals, we can say that they depend on plants for food. When compared to flora, the ability to move and inability to produce their food can be named as some main features of fauna.