Flora and fauna of

the United States

 Flora:
• The native flora of the United States includes about 17,000 species of vascular plants, plus tens of
thousands of additional species of other plants and plant-like organisms such as algae, lichens and
other fungi, and mosses. About 3,800 additional non-native species of vascular plants are recorded
as established outside of cultivation in the U.S., as well as a much smaller number of non-native
non-vascular plants and plant relatives. The United States possesses one of the most diverse
temperate floras in the world, comparable only to that of China.
• Several biogeographic factors contribute to the richness and diversity of the U.S. flora. While most
of the United States has a temperateclimate, Alaska has vast arctic areas, the southern part of 
Florida is tropical, as well as Hawaii (including high mountains), and alpine summits are present on
many western mountains, as well as a few in the Northeast. The U.S. coastline borders three
oceans: The Atlantic (and Gulf of Mexico), the Arctic, and the Pacific. Finally, the U.S. shares long
borders with Canada and Mexico, and is relatively close to the Bahamas, Cuba and other Caribbean
 islands, and easternmost Asia.
• The native flora of the United States has provided the world with a large number of horticultural
 and agricultural plants, mostly ornamentals, such as flowering dogwood, redbud, mountain laurel, 
bald cypress, southern magnolia, and black locust, all now cultivated in temperate regions
worldwide, but also various food plants such as blueberries, black raspberries, cranberries, 
maple syrup and sugar, and pecans, and Monterey pine and other timber trees.
 Flora

20.11.2022
 Fauna:
• The fauna of the United States of America is all the animals living in the 
Continental United States and its surrounding seas and islands, the Hawaiian Archipelago, 
Alaska in the Arctic, and several island-territories in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. The U.S.
has many distinctive indigenous species found nowhere else on Earth. With most of the
North American continent, the U.S. lies in the Nearctic faunistic realm, a region containing
an assemblage of species similar to northern parts of Africa and Eurasia.
• An estimated 432 species of mammals characterize the fauna of the continental U.S.  There
are more than 800 species of bird and more than 100,000 known species of insects. There are
311 known reptiles, 295 amphibians and 1154 known fish species in the U.S.  Known animals
that exist in all of the lower 48 states include white-tailed deer, bobcat, raccoon, muskrat, 
striped skunk, barn owl, American mink, American beaver, North American river otter and 
red fox. The red-tailed hawk is one of the most widely distributed hawks not only in the U.S.,
but in the Americas.
• Huge parts of the country with the most distinctive indigenous wildlife are protected as
national parks. In 2013, the U.S. had more than 6770 national parks or protected areas. The
first national park was Yellowstone National Park in the state of Wyoming, established in
1872. Yellowstone National Park is widely considered to be the finest megafauna wildlife
habitat in the U.S. There are 67 species of mammals in the park, including the gray wolf, the
threatened lynx, and the grizzly bear.[7]
20.11.2022
 Fauna

20.11.2022
The end