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.

Here we present 36 new records of 22 species of Lentibulariaceae from northeastern Brazil, expanding their distribution range and providing taxonomic, habitat and phenological comments, in addition to distribution maps and photographs of living specimens. Rio Grande do Norte is the state with the highest number of new records ( 12), followed by Alagoas, with eight. This is the first insight on the actual richness of the family in the region, and some species show interesting disjunct distributions and habitat restrictions. Only one species treated here is endemic to northeastern Brazil, ten species seem to be restricted to lowland white-sand wetlands, and three are restricted to high altitudes in campos rupestres or in campos de altitude. The remaining ones have a wider distribution. Our data support previous hypotheses on plant dispersal and past connections between Brazilian vegetation formations, shedding light for future studies on the dispersal history and biogeography of Lentibulariaceae.

This study comprises the survey and taxonomic treatment of the Lentibulariaceae species occurring in the Atlantic Forest phytogeographic domain of Northeastern Brazil, including the states of Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe. Thirty-one species from the two genera Genlisea (3 species) and Utricularia (28 species) were confirmed, and 13 species were found to be wrongly reported for the study area. Four out of these 31 are new records to Sergipe, one to Bahia, one to Rio Grande do Norte, and one to Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte; the latter one is also a new record for the Atlantic Forest. Only one species is endemic to the Atlantic Forest (Genlisea lobata) and only one to Northeastern Brazil (Utricularia flaccida), while 18 are widely distributed in the country, occurring in more than two phytogeographic domains. Other species present disjunct distributions that corroborate the already documented Atlantic-Amazonian and Atlantic-Cerrado connections. Here, an identification key, illustrations, photographs, distribution maps, besides taxonomic and phenological comments, are also presented. Moreover, an updated preliminary assessment of their conservation status at global scale, using IUCN Red List criteria, combined with a habitat preference categorization, is given as well.

Abstract—The rediscovery of a carnivorous plant, Utricularia cutleri, in a seasonally flooded coastal plain in the Atlantic Forest domain, is here reported. This species was first described in 1952 with a few collections from that time, and since 1989 was considered a synonym of U. viscosa. Combined macro- and micromorphological evidence using SEM analysis is provided to propose its taxonomic reestablishment. Utricularia cutleri was originally known only from the type collection in Ceará state, and here we report two new records from Mato Grosso and Rio Grande do Norte states, in central-western and northeastern Brazil. Updated morphological description, geographic distribution, and conservation status are provided, as well as comparative discussion with U. viscosa. Moreover, an updated identification key to species of Lentibulariaceae from Rio Grande do Norte is also presented.

The semiarid region of northeastern Brazil possesses a set of wetlands characterized by hydrographic basins with deficient drainage networks, a few large and permanent lotic systems and several permanent and temporary lagoons. Aquatic plants are widely distributed in these wetlands and the present study aims to determine if those of Ceará state have similar species compositions and differences in species richness. We hypothesized that lentic ecosystems would have more species and different growth forms of aquatic angiosperms than lotic ecosystems. A total of 1619 records of aquatic angiosperms in 43 wetland areas were analysed. The most representative families were Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae, Alismataceae, Malvaceae, Nymphaeaceae and Pontederiaceae. Most of the species are helophytes and bottom-rooted emergent hydrophytes. Permanent lentic ecosystems had the highest number of exclusive species (27.85 %), followed by temporary lentic ecosystems (20.54 %). Contrary to our hypothesis, the different aquatic ecosystems were found to possess distinct species compositions and different proportions of growth forms, and all wetland types contributed to the macrophyte richness of the study area, although they differ in species richness. Therefore, conservation plans for the native aquatic macrophyte biota should include all wetland ecosystems in the semiarid state of Ceará.