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A floristic province is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent floristic provinces 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.Several systems of floristic provinces 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. Systems of floristic provinces have both significant similarities and differences with zoogeographic provinces , which follow the composition of mammal families, and with biogeographical provinces or terrestrial ecozones, which take into account both plant and animal species.
Botanist Ronald Good identified six floristic kingdoms (Boreal, Neotropical, Paleotropical, South African, Australian, and Antarctic), the largest natural units he determined for flowering plants. Good's six kingdoms are subdivided into smaller units, called provinces. The Paleotropical kingdom is divided into three subkingdoms, which are each subdivided into floristic provinces. Each of the other five kingdoms are subdivided directly into provinces. There is a total of 37 floristic provinces. Almost all provinces are further subdivided into floristic regions.
Armen Takhtajan, in 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.
1 Taktajan's floristic provinces
1.1 Holarctic Kingdom
1.1.1 I. Circumboreal Region
- 1 Arctic
- 2 Atlantic Europe
- 3 Central Europe
- 4 Illyria or Balkan
- 5 Pontus Euxinus
- 6 Caucasus
- 7 Eastern Europe
- 8 Northern Europe
- 9 Western Siberia
- 10 Altai-Sayan
- 11 Central Siberia
- 12 Transbaikalia
- 13 Northeastern Siberia
- 14 Okhotsk-Kamchatka
- 15 Canada incl. Great Lakes
1.1.2 II. Eastern Asiatic Region
- 16 Manchuria
- 17 Sakhalin-Hokkaido
- 18 Japan-Korea
- 19 Volcano-Bonin
- 20 Ryukyu or Tokara-Okinawa
- 21 Taiwan
- 22 Northern China
- 23 Central China
- 24 Southeastern China
- 25 Sikang-Yuennan
- 26 Northern Burma
- 27 Eastern Himalaya
- 28 Khasi-Manipur
1.1.3 III. North American Atlantic Region
- 29 Appalachians
- 30 Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain
- 31 North American Prairies
1.1.4 IV. Rocky Mountain Region
- 32 Vancouver
- 33 Rocky Mountains
- 34 Azores
- 35 Madeira
- 36 Canaries
- 37 Cape Verde
1.1.6 VI. Mediterranean Region
- 38 Southern Morocco
- 39 Southwestern Mediterranean
- 40 South Mediterranean
- 41 Iberia
- 42 Baleares
- 43 Liguria-Tyrrhenia
- 44 Adriatic
- 45 East Mediterranean
- 46 Crimea-Novorossijsk
1.1.7 VII. Saharo-Arabian Region
- 47 Sahara
- 48 Egypt-Arabia
1.1.8 VIII. Irano-Turanian Region
- 49 Mesopotamia
- 50 Central Anatolia
- 51 Armenia-Iran
- 52 Hyrcania
- 53 Turania or Aralo-Caspia
- 54 Turkestan
- 55 Northern Baluchistan
- 56 Western Himalaya
- 57 Central Tien Shan
- 58 Dzungaria-Tien Shan
- 59 Mongolia
- 60 Tibet
1.1.9 IX. Madrean Region
- 61 Great Basin
- 62 California
- 63 Sonora
- 64 Mexican Highlands
1.2 Paleotropical Kingdom
1.2.1 X. Guineo-Congolian Region
- 65 Upper Guinea
- 66 Nigeria-Cameroon
- 67 Congo
1.2.2 XI. Usambara-Zululand Region
- 68 Zanzibar-Inhambane
- 69 Tongoland-Pondoland
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