What is Flora and Fauna?

Nature works on a very straightforward principle: plants and animals need each other to survive.

Scientists call this co-evolution flora and fauna–a relationship that plays out in our backyards, in gardens, on rainforest floors, and even in the deep oceans. This balance becomes exceptionally clear along the Pacific Slope of Mesoamerica, where endangered dry tropical forests and coastal wetlands put this relationship on full display. Understanding what flora and fauna are means understanding how these pieces fit together and why protecting them matters.

What is Flora?

Flora is any and every type of plant life in a specific place or at a specific time. It’s essentially nature’s own plant catalog for any given region. The scientists who came up with the term “flora,” borrowed it from the Roman goddess of flowers and fertility.

When it comes to flora, we’re talking about anything that’s able to make its own food using sunlight. So that includes towering trees that stretch up to the sky, shrubs along riverbanks, grasses that bend in coastal winds, mangroves tangled in brackish water, and orchids clinging to tree bark. If it grows and produces its own food through sunlight, it’s considered flora.

What is Fauna?

Fauna is the other half of the equation–it’s every type of animal that lives in a region or at a specific time. The term comes from the Roman god of forests and fields.

What counts as fauna? Animals that rely on consuming organic material for energy and cannot make their own food.. So that includes jaguars prowling through the undergrowth, spider monkeys swinging between branches, sea turtles crawling up onto beaches, bats echolocating through the darkness, birds migrating along the coast, and fish swimming in coral reefs.

What Is the Difference Between Flora and Fauna?

Understanding what flora and fauna are is all about realizing they are two sides of the same coin. They can’t function without both parts working together.

The main difference between them is that flora produces energy while fauna consumes it. Plants make food by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, capturing sunlight, and turning that into sugars and oxygen. This forms the basis of every food chain on the planet.

Animals can’t make their own food, so they have to eat to get energy. Herbivores eat plants directly, carnivores eat herbivores, and omnivores do both. Meanwhile, if you trace any food chain far enough, you’ll always find flora at the origin. That monkey eating a fruit got its energy from a tree, and the jaguar hunting the monkey is consuming energy that originated in plants.

Most flora are rooted in place, while fauna can move freely to find food, escape danger, or breed. That mobility results in an interesting symbiosis in that animals often spread seeds and pollen for plants, establishing mutualistic cycles.

Another key difference is how they interact with the air we breathe. Flora takes in carbon dioxide and releases oxygen through photosynthesis, while fauna breathes in that oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide during respiration.

How Do Flora and Fauna Work Together?

Understanding what flora and fauna are means seeing just how intertwined they are in ways most people never even notice.

Lots of trees and shrubs rely totally on animals to help them reproduce. Bats fly around at night sipping nectar from flowers and picking up pollen in their fur. Hummingbirds poke their long beaks into tubular blooms during the day, collecting the same kind of pollen. Each animal therefore helps plants produce seeds, without which many plant species would struggle to reproduce successfully.

Seed dispersal follows a similar pattern. Monkeys consume fruit and dispose of seeds miles away from the parent trees. Birds swallow berries whole, only to then deposit the seeds somewhere else via their droppings. This also allows plants to spread into new regions and prevent inbreeding.

We can also explain the flora and fauna of the Paso Pacífico coast using the oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange which runs non-stop. Most plants photosynthesize during the day, taking in carbon dioxide and producing oxygen and sugars. Animals use that oxygen to fuel metabolic processes, then breathe out carbon dioxide that plants need. This symbiotic cycle has been going on for ages.

The food chain also shows just how closely linked flora and fauna are. Plants capture the sun’s energy and turn it into sugar. Herbivorous animals munch on the plants for energy then get eaten by carnivorous animals, passing energy up the food chain. Plants form the foundation of the entire food chain.

What are the Threats to our Flora and Fauna?

The very forces wiping out species globally are now coming for the Pacific Slope–and fast.

Habitat Loss and Fragmentation

What is flora and fauna without suitable habitats for plant and animal species? Therefore, at the top of our list is habitat destruction. When you clear forests for cattle ranching, you remove plant and animal life in one fell swoop. Also, when coastal wetlands are turned into commercial shrimp farms, entire mangrove forest ecosystems are removed. Road construction also fragments what’s left of the habitat into tiny, isolated patches.

Climate Change

Climate change is occurring so rapidly that species can’t even adapt fast enough or keep up. When dry seasons drag on, the temperature patterns are continuously changing. Plants that were doing fine under previous conditions may now find themselves struggling to survive. Consequently, when plant species decline, animals that depend on them face food shortages and population declines.

Human-Wildlife Conflict

Human-wildlife conflict is spiking as natural habitat decreases. When the forest where the monkeys normally forage is gone, they switch to raiding crops for food. Also, when the jaguars’ natural prey is nowhere to be found, they go after livestock. Needless to say, humans get tired of losing their livestock and retaliate by killing the predators.

Illegal Wildlife Trade

Illegal wildlife trade is driving many species toward extinction. People go after capuchin monkeys and parrots to sell them as pets while poachers are after jaguars. Every time they take a single animal, they’re weakening the animal population, pushing species ever closer to extinction.

You Can Help Protect Our Biodiversity

Every ecosystem depends on its flora and fauna working together in perfect harmony. But here along the Pacific Slope, that balance is hanging by a thread as species face a long list of unprecedented threats.

At Paso Pacifico, we restore and protect the ecosystems of the Pacific Slope through conservation efforts that are geared towards community collaborations. The simple truth is, conservation must help local communities for it to succeed in the long-term. Since 2025, we’ve planted more than a million trees, boosted spider monkey populations by 60%, and helped kickstart ecotourism businesses serving as alternatives to habitat destruction.

We’re also building wildlife corridors to reconnect habitats that have been severely degraded over the years. These corridors are vital—they maintain the key interactions between flora and fauna that make ecosystems thrive. Every single corridor we build makes our conservation efforts more productive, and with your help, we can go even bigger.Mesoamerica’s plants and animals really could use a hand right now. You can support our efforts by donating.