flora

Noun

flora (countable and uncountable, plural floras or florae or floræ)

1. Plants considered as a group, especially those of a particular country, region, time, etc.
   • Thirdly, I continue to attempt to interdigitate the taxa in our flora with taxa of the remainder of the world.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page viii
2. A book describing the plants of a country, region, time, etc.
   • The garden is also involved in producing floras of North and Central America, Madagascar, and various countries in South America and Africa.1990 August, Boyd Gibbons, “Missouri's Garden of Consequence”, in National Geographic, volume 178, number 2, pages 138-140
   • He intended to publish a flora of the island, and drafted out a synonymic catalogue, into which he inserted from time to time elaborate descriptions drawn up from living specimens of the species which he was able to procure.1999, J. G. Baker, Flora of Mauritius and the Seychelles
3. The microorganisms that inhabit some part of the body.
   • gut flora, intestinal flora
   • The host effects upon the flora of both the small intestine and the large intestine must be examined.1977, United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, page 191

   Synonyms:

   microflora

Proper noun capitalized: Flora

IPA/ˈflɔːɹə/

Flora

1. (Roman) the goddess of flowers, nature and spring; she is also the wife of Favonius and the mother of Karpos. She is the Roman counterpart of Chloris.
2. 8 Flora, a main-belt asteroid.
3. A female given name from Latin.
   • What lovely names for girls there are! / There's Stella like the Evening Star, / And Sylvia like a rustling tree, / And Lola like a melody, / And Flora like a flowery morn, […]1933, Eleanor Farjeon, “Girls' Names”, in Over the Garden Wall, Faber and Faber, page 91
4. A surname.
5. A former community in Alachua County, Florida, annexed by Gainesville.
6. A city in Clay County, Illinois.
7. A township in Boone County, Illinois.
8. A town in Monroe Township, Carroll County, Indiana; named for founder John Flora.
9. A township in Dickinson County, Kansas.
10. An unincorporated community in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
11. A township in Renville County, Minnesota.
12. A town in Madison County, Mississippi; named for early resident Flora Mann Jones.