question_answer 34)

  What is the difference between flora, fauna and vegetation? Eichhornia crassipes is called as an exotic species, while Rauwolfia serpentine is an endemic species in India. What do these terms exotic and endemic refer to?

Answer:

                  The difference between flora, fauna and vegetation are as below

Flora	Fauna	Vegetation
Flora is a plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring indigenous native plant life.	Fauna Fauna is total number of animals found in a particular region at particular time	Vegetation It refers to the plant forms of region. It is broad and general term used for a plant forms, which does not include particular taxa or any botanical characteristics

The terms exotic and endemic refers to

Exotic Species	Endemic Species
Any species of a plant living in any other place except its native place is said to be exotic species. e.g., Eichhornia crassipes is native of Amazonian basin but it was introduced in India, so it is a exotic species in India.	Endemic species are restricted to a particular area, e.g., Rauwolfia serpentina is found only in India, so it is an endemic species found only in India.