Floral Provinces

NAME: Parmar Pratik K.

MSc Sem-1
Roll No.-7
Guided By- dr. N. Y. Bhatt.
 CONTENT
Floral kingdoms
period of dominance of the principal genus of
the floral
lower, middle and upper Gondwana flora
Floral provinces
Evolution of flora with geologic time scale
Indian flora
Floral province (floral kingdom, floral region)
A major geographical grouping of plants,
especially flowering plants, identified on the
basis of distinctiveness, particularly with
regard to the degree of endemism at family
and generic level.

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular

region or time, generally the naturally
occurring or indigenous — native plant life.
Botanist Ronald Good identified six floristic kingdoms.
Holarctic kingdom includes the North
America and Eurasia. its flora is inherited from
the ancient supercontinent of Laurasia.

The Boreal, or Holarctic, kingdom consists of

Eurasia and North America, which essentially
have been a contiguous mass since the Eocene
epoch (55.8 million to 33.9 million years ago).
 It is no surprise that the differences between the
floras of these two continents are minor.

 Families such as Betulaceae (birch), Brassicaceae

(also called Cruciferae), Primulaceae (primrose),
Rosaceae (rose), Ranunculaceae (buttercup), and
Apiaceae (also called Umbelliferae) are spread
across the temperate zone of the Northern
Hemisphere.
Neotropical kingdom covers all but the extreme
southern tip and southwestern strip of South
America; Central America; Mexico, excluding the
dry north and centre.
The vegetation ranges from tropical rain forest in
the Amazon and Orinoco basins in Venezuela (the
Llanos) and Argentina (the Pampas). Forty-seven
families and nearly 3,000 genera of flowering
plants are endemic to this kingdom.
 some families, including Bromeliaceae (pineapple)
and Cactaceae (cactus), are virtually confined to
this kingdom.
South African, or Capensic, kingdom
consists of the southern and southwestern tip
of Africa, It is remarkably rich in plants; 11
families and 500 genera are endemic. This is
the smallest of the kingdoms.

The winter rainfall climatic regime mimics that

of the Mediterranean region, and the general
aspect of the vegetation is akin to the scrubland
vegetation (maquis) of that region. At the edges
of this tiny, restricted zone, the flora merges
into the typical flora of Africa.
Australian kingdom: The flora of Australia plant
species estimated to over 20,000 vascular and 14,000
non vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi are
present.
species of vascular plants, these include the
angiospermae seed-bearing non-angiosperms (like
the conifers and cycads), and the spore-bearing ferns.
At the higher taxonomic levels the Australian flora is
similar to that of the rest of the world; Australia's
vascular flora is estimated to be 85% endemic; this
high level of vascular plant endemism is largely
attributable to the radiation of some families like the
proteaceae, myrtaceae , and fabaceae.
Paleotropical Kingdom (Paleotropis) is a
floristic kingdom comprising tropical areas of
Africa, Asia and Oceania(excluding Australia and
new Zealand).

The Paleotropical flora is characterized by 40

endemic families.

Over millions of years, these type of vegetation

present, covered much of the tropics of earth.
Many species are of vegetation disappeared,
which originally covered much of the mainland
of Africa, Madagascar, India, South America,
Antarctica, Australia, North America, Europe,
and other lands when their climate were more
humid and warm.

Although warm cloud forests disappeared

during the glaciations, they re-colonized large
areas every time the weather was favorable
again.
 According to the period of dominance of the
principal genus of the floral assemblage, the
Gondwana can be classified into three divisions

Lower Gondwana
Middle Gondwana
Upper Gondwana
1. Lower Gondwana:
This division shows predominance
of the Glossopteris flora, during
Permian period, in which the
Talchir, Karkarbari, Barakar,
Barren measures Raniganj, Motur,
Hingir and Bijori Formations are
included. Some elements of this
division continues till the Middle
Triassic.
1. Pteridophytes: 2. Gymnosperms:
(i)Equisetales (i)Glossopteridales
(ii)Cycadales
(ii)Sphenophyllales
(iii)Cordaitales
(iii)Lycopodiales
(iv)Ginkgoales
(iv)Filicales (v)Coniferalesc.
2. Middle Gondwana:
This is characte­rised by the accession of
Dicroidium and decli­ning of Glossopteris flora
(mixed flora) at the beginning of Triassic which
extends up to the Upper Triassic with dominance
of Dicroidium flora. In this division, Panchet,
Kamthi, Pachmari, Maleri, Parsora, Bagra, Tiki,
etc. Formations have been included.
 The different plants recovered
from the Middle Gondwana are
listed:
1. Pteridophytes:
(i) Equisetales: Schizoneura.
(ii) Calamitales: Neo-Calamites.
(iii) Filicales: Pecopteris,
Sphenopteris.
2. Gymnosperms:
(i) Glossopteridales : Glossopteris, Macro- taeniopteris,
Vertebraria, Dictyopteridium.
(ii) Corystospermales: Dicroidium.
(iii) Cycadales: Pseudoctenis, Taeniopteris.
(iv) Cycadeoidales: Pterophyllum, Zamites, Podozamites.
(v) Cordaitales: Neoggerathiopsis, Cardio- carpus,
Samaropsis.
(vi) Coniferales: Araucarites.
3. Upper Gondwana:
This is characterised by the arrival of Ptilophyllum
flora till the end of Gondwana era, ranging from
Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous.
(i)Lycopodiales: Lycopodites.
(ii)Isoetates: Isoetites.
(iii)Equisetales: Equisetites.
(iv)Filicales: Cyclopteris.

(i) Corystospermales: Dicroidium, Cycadopteris.

(ii) Cycadales: Macrotaeniopteris, Pseudoctenis.
(iii) Cycadeoidales : Otozamites, Cycadeoidea.
(iv) Caytoniales: Sagenopteris, Caytonia, Caytonanthus.
(vi) Cordaitales: Cardio- carpus, Samaropsis.
(vii) Coniferales: Elatochadus, Indophyllum,
(viii) Ginkgoales: Baiera, Ginkgoites.
In the northern provinces the vegetation covered
total areas of swamps and low hills while in the
southern province the flora was not much
luxuriant because of the proximity with the
retreating glaciers.

It is noticed from evidences from Gondwanaland,

there is phytological break between older
Rhacopteris flora and the newer Glossopteris flora.
In the Laurasia land the older Rhacopteris flora
suffered normal evolutionary changes and gave way
to lepidodendron flora.
In the southern provinces due to sharp changes in
climate most of the older flora got extinct and it is
expected that the glossopteris flora originated from
the counterpart of the Northern Province.
Most of gymnosperms and cycads form died out
during the cretaceous. This was the beginning of the
development of the angiosperms and they became
the most dominant plant group in tertiary and
quaternary eras as also during present day times.
 A flower is said to be
actinomorphic when all the floral
members ( sepals , petals ,
stamens , carpels ) are having
equal size & shape.
Ex- Hibiscus

a flower is said to be Zygomorphic

when the floral members vary in
size and shape.
Ex- Pisum sativum

www. biologydiscussion.com
ERA PERIOD EPOCH EVOLUTION OF FLORA
Cenozoic Quaternary Recent Rise of herbaceous plant
Tertiary Pliocene Adaptive radiation of flora
Miocene Adaptive radiation of
angiospermae
Paleocene To Dominance increases of flora
Oligocene
Mesozoic Cretaceous Gymnospermae and
Jurassic angiospermae dominating
Triassic
Paleozoic Permian Rise of conifers and Cycads
Carboniferous Dominance of Calamites,
Silurian Lepidodendron , Lycopsida.
And origin of vascular plants

Devonian Psilopsida, sphenopsida,

Silurian bryophytta , land plants and
Ordovician algae.
India covers more than 45,000 species of flora, out of
which there are several species that are not found
anywhere else.
 Since ancient times, use of plants as a source of
medicines has been the inherent part of life in India.
There are more than 3000 officially documented plants
in India that holds great medicinal potential. India
comprises of seven percent of world's flora.
 India is divided into main eight floristic regions namely
- Western Himalayas, Eastern Himalayas, Assam, Indus
plain, Ganga plain, the Deccan, the Malabar and the
Andamans.
Indian flora has a great range of varieties from the
coniferous to the ever green, from scrubs to forests and
thick tropical jungles to cool temperate woods.

The tropical forests in east are in contrast to the pine

and coniferous woodland of the western Himalayas.
The Himalayan foothills are dense with deciduous
trees and shrubs, bamboos, fern and grass.

The gangetic plain, the Deccan plateu, the dense

luxuriant forests of the Western Ghats - all provide
fascinating variations in habitats.
 REFERENCES
 Wikipedia.com
 encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com
 Enclyopedia.com
 Paleontology book written by Dr. P. C. Jain
 Nationalgeographic.org
THANK
YOU.