Flowers & Geography

Geographically, Flowers are seen growing in their respective habitats having adapted to that climate or the climatic conditions having been favorable for the Flowers. In the original sense, climate is a concept used to divide the world into regions sharing similar climatic parameters. Some such flowering genuses like Acacia are distributed across the whole globe without any climatic boundaries. But most of the flowering plants are climate specific. Climatic regions can be classified on the basis of temperature and precipitation.

Geographically, the globe is divided into 3 Zones:

Tropical
Temperate
Polar

Tropical Zone:

Flowers And Geography - Tropical Flowers The tropics lie between the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere, near the equator. The principal regions with a tropical climate are the Amazon Basin in Brazil, the Congo Basin in West Africa and Indonesia. India, southern China, southern Africa, South America, and the north coast and central Australia, southwestern United States, northern Mexico, Argentina, a major portion of Africa also fall under the tropical region. The climate is these regions is non-arid with mean temperatures above 18 ?C (64.4 ?F) throughout the year. Therefore, the Flowers growing in/native to these regions are Tropical Flowers.

Tropical Flowers:

Flowers native to the tropical zone include: African Moon, African Tulip, Agave, Alpine Aster, Alpinia, Amaryllis, Amazonlily, Angel Wing Begonia, Annual Delphinium, Begonia Fairlady, Begonia Non-stop Red, Bitter Gourd, Blanket Flower,Bleeding Heart Vine, Blood Lily, Blue Alpine Daisy, Blue Dawn Flower, Blue Jacaranda, Blue Passion Flower, Bottle Brush, Butterfly Jasmine Mariposa, Calatheas, Cally Lily, Catasetum, Cattleya, Cautleya, Christmas orchid, Constantia, Cosmos Pink, Cyrtopodium, Dahlia, Day Lily Frans Hals, Decorative Dahlia, Encyclia, Etlingera, Flame of the Forest, Frangipani, Golden Shower, Grass of the Dew, Heliconia, Hibiscus, Inca Magic flower, Jasmine, Kantuta, Koutruk Lei, Laelia, Lotus, Maxillaria, Melati (Jasmine) (Jasminum sambac), Moon Orchid Phalaenopsis amabilis (also known as the anggrek bulan), Musas, Orchid, Poinciana or Flamboyant Delonix Regia, Rafflesia arnoldi (Alpine Aster Pink), Sampaguita, Sophronitella, and Sophronitis.

Temperate Zone:

The temperate zones lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in climate here, between summer and winter, are generally subtle. Temperatures range from warm to cool, but not burning hot or freezing cold. However, the weather in the temperate zones can be unpredictable. It may be sunny one day, and raining the next, and cloudy the next day.

Southwestern South America, New Zealand and Tasmania, northwest Europe (small pockets in Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and a somewhat larger area in Norway), southern Japan, and the eastern Black Sea-Caspian Sea region of Turkey and Georgia to northern Iran etc., come under temperate zones. The flora in these regions has adapted to the temperate climate or typically needs this climate to flourish.

Temperate Flowers

Flowers that grow in a temperate climate are Maple Leaf, Rose, Pomegranate, Lotus, Iris, Centaurea or Knapweed, Sunflower, Tulip, Chrysanthemum (imperial) , Cherry Blossom (Sakura), Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha), Kowhai (Sophora microphylla).

Polar Zone:

Flowers And Geography - Polar Flowers The climate in Polar regions is characterized by cold summers and the average temperature throughout the year is below 10°C. These regions lack any trees, and may also be covered with glaciers or a permanent or semi-permanent layer of ice. The less severe polar climate is the tundra climate. Antarctica, and coastal areas on the island of Greenland are the only regions on the globe with a polar climate. Tundra climate prevails across the northernmost part of the Eurasian land mass, from the northern tip of Scandinavia and eastwards to the Bering Strait, including large areas of northern Siberia. Large areas in northern Canada and northern Alaska also have a tundra climate, while an ice cap climate prevails in the most northern parts of Canada and Northern Iceland.