Macaronesia is a collection of four archipelagos in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the continents of Europe and Africa. Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands formed by seamounts on the ocean floor with peaks above the ocean's surface. The Macaronesian islands belong to three countries: Portugal, Spain, and Cape Verde. Politically, the islands belonging to Portugal and Spain are part of the European Union. Geologically, Macaronesia is part of the African Plate, including the Azores, which mark its edge at the meeting point with the Eurasian and North American Plates.
The golden samphire is a perennial coastal species, which may be found growing on salt marsh or sea cliffs across western and southern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Lathraea squamaria, the common toothwort, is a species of toothwort. It is widely distributed in Europe and also occurs in Turkey.
Viburnum tinus is a species of flowering plant in the family Adoxaceae, native to the Mediterranean area of Europe and North Africa. Laurus signifies the leaves' similarities to bay laurel.
Orchis anthropophora, the man orchid, is a European species of orchid whose flowers resemble a human figure. The head is formed by the petals and sepals, and the suspended torso and limbs by the lobes of the labellum. It usually grows in calcareous grassland.
Catananche caerulea, Cupid's dart, is a greyish green perennial herbaceous plant with a basal leaf rosette and conspicuous blue-purple or sometimes white flowerheads, belonging to the daisy family. It is a popular garden plant and is often used in dried flower arrangements.
Anthemis arvensis, also known as corn chamomile, mayweed, scentless chamomile, or field chamomile is a species of flowering plant the genus Anthemis, in the aster family. It is used as an ornamental plant.
Acacia dealbata, the silver wattle, blue wattle or mimosa, is a species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae, native to southeastern Australia in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory and widely introduced in Mediterranean, warm temperate, and highland tropical landscapes.
Pancratium maritimum, or sea daffodil, is a species of bulbous plant native to the Canary Islands and both sides of the Mediterranean region and Black Sea from Portugal, Morocco and the Balearic Islands east to Turkey, Syria, Israel and the Caucasus. In the parts of its range on the south Bulgarian and north Turkish and Georgian coasts of Black Sea, it is threatened with extinction. It is also naturalized in southern California, Bermuda and the Azores.
The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) is a biogeographical system developed by the international Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) organization, formerly the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases. The WGSRPD standards, like other standards for data fields in botanical databases, were developed to promote "the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the world's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large". The system provides clear definitions and codes for recording plant distributions at four scales or levels, from "botanical continents" down to parts of large countries. Current users of the system include the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), and the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP).
Lamium maculatum is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native throughout Europe and temperate Asia.
Ophrys sphegodes, commonly known as the early spider-orchid, is a species of sexually-deceptive orchid native to Europe and the Middle East. It is a very varied species with many subspecies recognised.
Prunus lusitanica, the Portugal laurel, is a species of the genus Prunus, related to the cherry. It is native to southwestern France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Macaronesia.
Chamaemelum is a small genus of plants in the daisy family commonly known as chamomiles or dogfennels. Perhaps the best-known species is Roman chamomile, Chamaemelum nobile. These are annual or perennial herbs, rarely exceeding half a meter in height and usually bearing solitary white daisylike flowers with yellow centers. They are native to Europe but most species can be found scattered in other continents where they have been introduced.
Vandenboschia speciosa, synonym Trichomanes speciosum, commonly known as the Killarney fern, is a species of fern found widely in Western Europe. It is most abundant in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Brittany, Galicia, Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores, but is also found in other locations including France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. It is a relict endemic European species with a disjunct distribution, having had a much wider distribution before the climate changes of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods.
Simethis is a genus of plants in the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae. It contains only one known species, Simethis mattiazzii, commonly called the Kerry lily.
Sorocephalus is a genus containing 11 species of flowering plants, commonly known as powderpuffs, in the family Proteaceae. The name means “heaped head”. The genus is endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, more particularly the winter rainfall zone of the southwestern Cape. The species are all small shrubs characterised by flower-heads containing clusters of four or more flowers. Most species are threatened.
Allium paniculatum, common name pale garlic or Mediterranean onion, is a Eurasian species of wild onion with a range extending from Portugal to Kazakhstan. It is widely cultivated and is now naturalized in several places outside its native range.
Hypericum undulatum, the wavy St Johns Wort, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant native to western Europe and northern Africa. The specific name undulatum is Latin, meaning "wavy" or "undulated", referring, just as the common name, to the wavy leaf margins of the herb. The plant has a diploid number of 16 or 32.
Protea revoluta, also known as the roll-leaved sugarbush or rolled-leaf sugarbush, is a species of plant which is classified in the genus Protea. P. revoluta is only found growing in the wild in South Africa, where plants can be found growing between the Cederberg inland on the Atlantic coast and the Witteberg area to the north.
