What is the flora and fauna definition in one line?

Flora is all the plant life that grows naturally in a particular region or period. Fauna is all the animal life found naturally in that same region or period. Together the two words describe the wild living things of a place, which is why they appear in geography, biology and travel writing.

Is a mushroom flora or fauna?

Strictly, a mushroom is neither. It is a fungus, and fungi form their own kingdom, separate from plants and animals. Older books often listed fungi under flora, and NCERT's Class 12 species count still groups fungi with plants. So a mushroom is best described as a fungus, not as a plant or an animal.

Are humans part of fauna?

Biologically, yes. Humans are animals, so they belong to the animal kingdom. In everyday use, though, the fauna of a region usually means its wild animals. Pets, farm animals and people are normally left out when a book or report lists the flora and fauna of a forest, national park or island.

Why does India have such rich flora and fauna?

India spans tropical and temperate zones and has mountains, deserts, wet forests, coasts and islands. Each setting supports different communities of plants and animals. NCERT's Class 12 Biology book says nearly 45,000 plant species and about twice as many animal species have been recorded from the country.

Which has more species, flora or fauna?

Fauna has far more recorded species. NCERT's Class 12 Biology book, citing the IUCN (2004), says more than 70 per cent of recorded species are animals. Plants, counted together with algae and fungi, make up no more than 22 per cent of recorded species. Insects alone account for more than 70 per cent of animal species.

Flora and Fauna: Meaning, Differences and Examples

Flora and fauna are the two words used for the wild life of a place. Flora means the plants that grow naturally in a region. Fauna means the animals that live there. Together they describe the living wealth of a forest, a country or even a single pond.

These two terms are the starting point for studying biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth. Below, you will find a side-by-side comparison and a closer look at each group. An overview of plant and animal diversity follows, with the figures NCERT expects you to know.

What is the difference between flora and fauna?

The table below sets out the main differences. Most rows are basic biology. The species shares come from NCERT’s Class 12 Biology textbook.

Feature	Flora	Fauna
Meaning	Plant life of a region or period	Animal life of a region or period
Kingdom	Plantae (plant kingdom)	Animalia (animal kingdom)
Food	Most make their own food by photosynthesis (autotrophs)	Eat plants or other animals (heterotrophs)
Movement	Fixed by roots; seeds and pollen spread by wind, water or animals	Most can move from place to place
Role in food chain	Producers	Consumers (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores)
Cell wall	Cells have a rigid wall made of cellulose	Cells have no cell wall
Green pigment	Most plants contain chlorophyll; the parasitic plant Cuscuta has lost it (NCERT)	No chlorophyll
Growth	Many keep growing at shoot and root tips all their lives	Most stop growing once adult
Share of recorded species (NCERT, citing IUCN 2004)	No more than 22 per cent of recorded species, with algae, fungi, bryophytes and gymnosperms counted as plants	More than 70 per cent
Recorded from India (NCERT)	Nearly 45,000 species	About twice as many as plants
Indian examples	Sal, teak, neem, deodar, sundari, lotus	Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, peafowl, king cobra, Gangetic dolphin

What is flora?

Flora is the total plant life that grows naturally in an area. The word also names a book that lists and describes those plants, such as a “Flora of the Nilgiris”. Flora includes huge trees, shrubs, grasses, climbers, ferns, mosses and water plants.

Most plants are producers. They trap sunlight in their green pigment, chlorophyll, and turn carbon dioxide and water into food. Every other living thing in an ecosystem depends on this food in some way.

Geographers use a related term, natural vegetation. NCERT’s Class 11 geography book defines it as a plant community left undisturbed for a long time, so its species can adjust fully to the local climate and soil. Planted crops and garden trees are not natural vegetation, but wild plants are.

Types of flora

Flora is often grouped by where the plants grow:

Forest flora: trees such as sal, teak, rosewood and deodar
Desert flora: cacti, thorny bushes and khejri, with small or spiny leaves
Aquatic flora: lotus, water lily, algae and sea grasses
Mangrove flora: sundari and other salt-tolerant trees of the Sundarbans

What is fauna?

Fauna is the total animal life found naturally in an area. It covers mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. It also includes the much larger crowd of insects, spiders, worms, snails and other animals without backbones.

Animals are consumers. Unable to make food themselves, they feed on plants or on other animals. Herbivores such as chital eat plants. Carnivores such as leopards eat other animals. Omnivores such as sloth bears eat both.

Types of fauna

Scientists use special words for parts of the fauna:

Avifauna: the birds of a region
Aquatic fauna: animals of rivers, lakes and seas
Soil fauna: earthworms, ants, mites and other animals living in soil
Microfauna: animals too small to see clearly without a microscope

How are flora and fauna similar?

Despite their differences, plants and animals share many basic features of life:

Both are made of cells that contain a nucleus.
Both grow, reproduce and respond to their surroundings.
Both respire, releasing energy from food.
Both are named and grouped by the same system of scientific classification.
Both are threatened by habitat loss, pollution and climate change.

Microorganisms do not fit neatly into either word. Bacteria and fungi are neither plants nor animals. Older textbooks often listed fungi under flora, so check how your own book treats them.

How do flora and fauna depend on each other?

Plants and animals of a place are tightly linked. Plants feed and shelter animals and give out oxygen during photosynthesis. Animals return the favour in several ways. Bees and birds carry pollen between flowers. Fruit-eating birds, bats and monkeys drop seeds far from the parent tree. Grazing animals add dung that enriches the soil.

When one side suffers, so does the other. Cutting a forest removes the home of its animals. Losing pollinators means fewer fruits and seeds. This link is why conservation always protects habitats, not single species. NCERT’s Class 11 geography book notes that India has taken special steps, with UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme, to conserve its flora and fauna.

Scientists also use flora and fauna to sort the world into large natural regions. NCERT’s new Class 9 social science book explains that biomes are classified using temperature, rainfall, flora and fauna.

Overview of plant and animal diversity

Diversity in flora and fauna means the number and variety of plant and animal species in an area. The biodiversity of plants and animals is uneven: some groups and some regions are far richer than others.

How many plant and animal species are known?

Counting all life on Earth is not yet possible. NCERT’s Class 12 Biology book, citing the IUCN (2004), states that slightly more than 1.5 million plant and animal species have been described. The ecologist Robert May estimated the real total at about 7 million. If May’s estimate is accepted, NCERT notes, only 22 per cent of all the species on Earth have been recorded so far. This share of the planet’s total is a separate figure from the plant share given below.

Which group has the most species?

Animals win by a wide margin. In NCERT’s figures (citing IUCN, 2004), animals form more than 70 per cent of recorded species. Plants, a group that here includes algae, fungi, bryophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms, make up no more than 22 per cent of recorded species. That 22 per cent is a share of known species, not of all life on Earth. Insects alone make up over 70 per cent of animal species. NCERT also points out that fungi outnumber the fishes, amphibians, reptiles and mammals combined.

Bacteria are left out of these counts. NCERT explains that microbes are hard to classify and many will not grow in a laboratory, so their species may number in millions.

Where are plants and animals most diverse?

Warm, wet regions near the equator hold the richest life. National Geographic’s page on vegetation regions says tropical rainforests contain more than half of the world’s biodiversity. Its biodiversity page gives a sharp contrast in plants. The Amazon Rainforest has at least 40,000 plant species, while Antarctica has only around 600. Seas show the same pattern. Indonesia’s Bird’s Head Seascape is home to more than 1,600 fish species.

How diverse are India’s flora and fauna?

NCERT’s Class 12 Biology book (Reprint 2026-27) records nearly 45,000 plant species and about twice that number of animal species from India. India has 2.4 per cent of the world’s land but 8.1 per cent of recorded species diversity. Using May’s estimate, NCERT suggests over 1,00,000 Indian plant species and over 3,00,000 animal species still await discovery. India’s regions each have distinctive wildlife, as our guide to the flora and fauna of India by region shows.