Search

The Online Encyclopedia and Dictionary

 
     
 

Encyclopedia

Dictionary

Quotes

 

Indigenous

The word indigenous is derived from the latin word indigena, meaning nativ, indigenous, aboriginal, and has several, related meanings:

  • The native people of a place; see the article indigenous people.
  • The Native American blues-rock band, Indigenous
  • In biology, indigenous means native to a place or biota, in contrast to any one of several terms meaning not native to a place (non-native, alien, adventive, introduced) and differentiated from endemic. A species that is endemic is unique to that place, found naturally nowhere else. A species that is indigenous is native, but not unique in the sense that it is also native to other locations as well. Thus, a species that is native to California, but found naturally in Oregon and Washington as well (native to the West Coast of the United States) is indigenous to California. A species found only in the British Isles is endemic to those islands.

The contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. How to see transparent copy