The publication characterizes basic principles of the scientific direction, which for the past hundred years has been shaped on the border of botany, ecology, forestry and constructive geography and study the flora that benefits from anthropogenic intervention in life of phytocenoses - synanthropic floristics. The object-subject sphere of synanthropic floristics as a separate scientific discipline is formulated. The interdisciplinary connections of synanthropic floristics with other branches of natural sciences, including geography, ecology, forestry, are highlighted. The importance of some concepts of modern natural science - sustainable development, noosphere, anthropogenic landscape - in the development of research on synanthropic flora is emphasized. The content of the most important studies during the formation of synanthropic floristics is outlined, which allowed to distinguish three stages in its development. It is noted that at the first stage, basically, the most important scientific principles of research of synanthropic flora were formed. The second stage is related to the improvement of theoretical foundations and the active development of regional research in the field of synanthropic floristics. The third stage is marked by in-depth regional studies of synanthropic floroelements of phytocenoses. Emphasis is placed on the significance of the works of the most prominent scientists in the field of synanthropic floristics - A. Tellung, J. Kornaś, V. Protopopova and others. Particular attention is paid to history of study of synanthropic flora of Ukraine since the 1920s. It is noted that synanthropic floristics uses a wide range of methods, including general science (dialectics, system, logic), interdisciplinary (historical and geographical) and special (Brown-Blanquet method, syntaxonomic analysis). The conceptual and terminological apparatus of the characterized discipline is given. Depending on the origin and content of the concept and terms are grouped into several groups that can develop into conceptual and terminological systems. In particular, such systems are formed around the basic concepts of "synanthropization", "flora", "phytocenosis", "landscape" and so on. It is noted that the synthetic nature of the discipline determines its significant prospects in the context of the development of modern natural science