The Austroriparian is a biogeographic province in the Southeastern United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. As designated by Miklos Udvardy

Miklos Udvardy

Miklos Dezso Ferenc Udvardy was a biologist and biogeographer. He was born on March 23, 1919 in Debrecen, Hungary to Miklos Udvardy and Elizabeth Komlossy. Despite an early interest in birds, his father encouraged him to study law, but later went on to earn a doctorate in biology from the...

, it includes the humid coniferous and mixed temperate forests of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain

Mississippi Alluvial Plain

The Mississippi River Alluvial Plain is an alluvial plain created by the Mississippi River on which lies parts of seven states, from southern Louisiana to southern Illinois....

 and the Atlantic Coastal Plain

Atlantic Coastal Plain

The Atlantic coastal plain has both low elevation and low relief, but it is also a relatively flat landform extending from the New York Bight southward to a Georgia/Florida section of the Eastern Continental Divide, which demarcates the plain from the ACF River Basin in the Gulf Coastal Plain to...

 from eastern Texas to southeastern Virginia, including all but the southernmost portion of Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, and covering portions of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas.

In the WWF designation of ecoregion

Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...

s, the Austroriparian province corresponds generally to the Mississippi lowland forests

Mississippi lowland forests

The Mississippi lowland forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion in the eastern United States, covering an area of .-Setting:...

, Middle Atlantic coastal forests

Middle Atlantic coastal forests

The Middle Atlantic coastal forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of the United States.-Setting:The Middle Atlantic coastal forests stretch along the Atlantic coast of the United States from the Delmarva Peninsula south to the Georgia coast...

, Southeastern conifer forests, Florida Sand Pine Scrub, and the eastern portion of the Western Gulf coastal grasslands

Western Gulf coastal grasslands

The Western Gulf coastal grasslands are a subtropical grassland ecoregion of the southern United States and northeastern Mexico. It is known in Texas as "Coastal Prairie" and as the Tamaulipan pastizal in Mexico.-Setting:...

 ecoregions.

The Austroriparian province corresponds to the southern portion of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain 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...

.

The name is compound of the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 terms Austro (southern) and riparian (of the river bank).