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Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions

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The following categorization scheme is the result of a project to have our flora geographic categories follow the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions:

Brummitt, R. K. (2001). World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions: Edition 2 (PDF). Biodiversity Information Standards—TDWG. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
WGSRPD botanical continents

Using the categorization hierarchy

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See Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/Template#Categories for advice: "Try to limit the number of categories with common sense and judicious use of regional categories: a species found across Europe except for two or three countries is still accurately put simply in Category:Flora of Europe."

  • If a species has a wide distribution that approximately matches the boundary of the largest scale geographic categories (e.g. continent or larger countries), then place it only in those top level geography categories and exclude it from child categories of those.
  • If a species has a more limited distribution but is still best described by regional boundaries (e.g. "Flora of Northern Europe" or "Flora of the Southeastern United States"), then place it only in those regional geography categories and exclude it from child categories of those. However, if the distribution extends just beyond the regional category's demarcation, a few additional categories may be required (e.g. some species occur in the Southeastern United States but also occur in Texas, so it would be categorized in both the regional Southeastern United States category and the Flora of Texas category).
  • If a species' distribution doesn't sufficiently match a regional category's boundary either because it is in too few of its subdivisions (states or small countries) or it straddles the boundary between two regional categories (e.g. a species present in a few countries in southern Northern Europe and northern Southwestern Europe and cannot accurately be described as being a member of either without breaking it down into just the countries it is found in), then choose the categories that are among the finest scale (states, provinces, and smaller countries. Species endemic to a state, province, or smaller country (those not subdivided) should only be categorized in these but the finest scale of categories is not restricted to endemic species.
What taxa do I include in these categories?

Each category should describe its geographical circumscription (boundaries) and also note that it is limited to flora that are native (not naturalized, introduced, or invasive) in that region. Taxa of the lowest rank are always included (species, subspecies, varieties). Higher taxa are included only if endemic (for example, a genus endemic to Western Australia could have the genus article itself included in that category). In the case of monotypic taxa, redirects should be categorized in exactly the same way.

Important differences from the usual geographical definitions

To link to explanations of the WGSRPD definitions, the following can be used:

Northern Europe
Central Europe

Called Middle Europe rather than Central Europe in WGSRPD.

Southwestern Europe
Southeastern Europe

Note that the WGSRPD does not include the eastern Aegean islands in Europe.

Eastern Europe (with European Russia)
Eastern Europe with Russian federal divisions shown
  (green) Eastern Europe: Belarus, Estonia, Kaliningrad, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Crimea, Moldova (not shown)
  (orange) Northwest European Russia
  (red) Central European Russia
  (yellow) South European Russia
  (dark blue) North European Russia
  (violet) East European Russia
North Africa

Called Northern Africa in the WGSRPD.

Macaronesia
West Tropical Africa
West-Central Tropical Africa
Northeast Tropical Africa
East Tropical Africa
South Tropical Africa
Southern Africa; see text opposite for the key to the regions
Middle Atlantic Ocean

Called Asia-Temperate in the WGSRPD.

Siberia (shaded region), including West Siberia (pink)
Russian Far East
Central Asia

Called Middle Asia by the WGSRPD.

The Caucasus: North Caucasus (orange) and South Caucasus (green); remainder of Russia in white
Western Asia
Arabian Peninsula
  (orange) Xinjiang
  (pink) Tibet
  (brown) Qinghai
  (yellow) Inner Mongolia
  (purple) Manchuria
  (blue) North-Central China
  (red) South-Central China
  (light green) Southeast China
  (dark green) Hainan
Mongolia

(N.B. No subcategories, just Mongolia.)

East Asia

Note that the WGSRPD Eastern Asia is very different from the usual meaning of "East Asia", being a much smaller region.

Called Asia-Tropical in the WGSRPD.

The Indian subcontinent:
  (yellow) Pakistan
  (pink) West Himalaya
  (orange) Nepal
  (red) East Himalaya
  (green) India
  (blue) Bangladesh
  (violet) Assam (region)
  (brown) Sri Lanka
Oval: Laccadive Islands (Lakshadweep)
Not shown: Maldives
Indo-China
Malesia
Papuasia

Note that Australasia is limited to Australia and New Zealand, plus outlying islands, and thus differs from most geographical schemes, which include many more areas.

Australasia, consisting of Australia (darker green) and New Zealand (lighter green)
Pacific botanical continent

Flora of the north-central Pacific

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(The regional category is not needed as there is only one area within it.)

Note that this excludes Central America and the Caribbean.

Subarctic America
Western Canada
Eastern Canada
Northwestern United States
North-Central United States
Northeastern United States
Southwestern United States
South-Central United States
Southeastern United States
  (purple) Northwestern Mexico
  (blue) Central Mexico
  (maroon) Veracruz
  (olive yellow) Southeastern Mexico
Not shown: Mexican Pacific islands (Guadalupe Island, Rocas Alijos, Revillagigedo Islands
WGSRPD Southern America with its regions

Note that this includes Central America and the Caribbean.

WGSRPD Antarctic: Subantarctic Islands between the two blue lines; Antarctic Continent = Antarctica inside the inner blue line

Flora of the Antarctic Continent

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(The regional category is not needed as there is only one area contained within it.)