The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions is a standard of the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases (TDWG) that sets out an agreed system for describing plant distributions, approximately down to country level. It defines geographic places at four scales:

1. continental;
2. regional or sub-continental;
3. "Botanical Country", which generally equates to a political country, but may split very large countries, or omit outlying areas; and
4. "Basic Recording Units". These are only used for large countries, and are used to subdivide into states or provinces on purely political grounds.

Principles of organization

The scheme is particularly aimed at taxonomic databases. It represents a compromise between political and botanical divisions. All boundaries either follow a political boundary (country boundary, province boundary, etc), or coast lines. The scheme aims to follow botanical tradition, in terms of the categories of works like the Flora Europaea

Flora Europaea

The Flora Europaea is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication that helped readers identify any wild or widely cultivated plant in Europe to the...

, Flora Malesiana

Flora Malesiana

Flora Malesiana is a multi-volume flora describing the vascular plants of Malesia , published by the National Herbarium of the Netherlands since 1950...

, or Med-Checklist.

For those desiring a more botanical classification, the document endorses the floristic province

Floristic province

A phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phytochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both regions overlap...

s classified by Takhtajan.

Top level

The scheme defines nine botanical continent

Continent

A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...

s: Europe, Africa, Asia-Temperate, Asia-Tropical, Australasia, Pacific, Northern America, Southern America and Antarctic.

Acceptance

Works using the scheme include the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, published by Kew Gardens

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...

; and the Germplasm Resources Information Network

Germplasm Resources Information Network

Germplasm Resources Information Network or GRIN is an online software project of National Genetic Resources Program of USDA to provide germplasm information about plants, animals, microbes and invertebrates.-Sub-Projects:...

(GRIN).