For the purposes of this category, "South America" is defined in accordance with the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD), which calls it Southern America, namely as one of the nine "botanical continents". It includes the following regions:
Native taxa of the lowest rank are included if they occur widely in the botanical continent, otherwise they should be included in the flora of one or more of the constituent regions. Higher taxa are included only if endemic.}}