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The shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora.

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We present a list of species of ferns and lycophytes from Carambeí, a municipality located in Paraná state, southern Brazil. This area, locally known as “Campos Gerais”, presents an intricate mosaic of forests and savannah with several canyons and humid valleys that harbors a rich and unique vegetation in Southern Brazil. In total, we found 129 species (119 ferns and 10 lycophytes), distributed in 18 families and 59 genera, and 20% (26 spp.) of which are endemic to Brazil. The most expressive families were Polypodiaceae (19 spp.), Pteridaceae (18 spp.) and Thelypteridaceae (15 spp.). The most representative genera were Asplenium (8 spp. - 6.2%) and Amauropelta (8 spp - 6.2%). Terrestrial herbs, epiphytes and lithophytes are the most common guild of life forms, successively. The richest environments were woody forest (61% of the species) and herbaceous-shrubby (12%). Arachniodes denticulata, Phlegmariurus flexibilis and P. Heterocarpon are the second record in the “Campos Gerais” region. We also provide photographic plates with diagnostic characters for most of the species.

Polybotrya (Dryopteridaceae) is a genus of Neotropical endemic ferns that exhibits diverse growth forms and often plays important ecological roles in tropical forests. The genus is composed of about 35 species, yet the taxonomy of some groups of species in the genus is poorly understood. In this work we present the first detailed taxonomic treatment of Polybotrya in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We provide a key, descriptions, comments, conservation status, distribution maps, and illustrations for the ten species found in the Atlantic Forest. Seven species are endemic (P. cylindrica, P. espiritosantensis, P. matosii sp. nov., P. pilosa, P. semipinnata, P. speciosa and P. tomentosa) and three are widespread in Brazil or in the Neotropics (P. goyazensis, P. osmundacea and P. sorbifolia). A new species, Polybotrya matosii, is described, and the name P. tomentosa is reconsidered in this study. Lectotypes are also designated for P. incisa and P. semipinnata.

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Bryaceae is a species-rich moss family comprising ten genera and 660 species, with four genera and 54 species occurring in Brazil. Bryum is the largest genus, with 440 cosmopolitan species, while Anomobryum comprises 47 cosmopolitan species. Identifying taxa in Bryaceae is usually a difficult task, mainly due to the lack of the sporophyte in herborized specimens. This study aimed to provide a taxonomic treatment for the species of Anomobryum and Bryum in Brazil. Field expeditions were performed in all Brazilian biomes and States, with specimens deposited in the SP herbarium. We examined type specimens and collections from national and international herbaria, but mostly from the SP herbarium. Two species of Anomobryum and 18 species of Bryum were recorded for Brazil. Twenty species occur in the Atlantic Forest, with Bryum pallescens, Anomobryum conicum and A. julaceum being exclusives. Bryum pallescens is a new record for Brazil, and B. riparioides is a reestablished name also endemic to Brazil. We present the first description of the sexuality of Bryum renauldii. Ten taxa of doubtful occurrence and 20 excluded names for Bryum were reported for Brazil.