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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Gamochaeta (tribe Gnaphalieae, Asteraceae) is composed of ca. 60 species primarily distributed in tropical and subtropical America. Within the tribe Gnaphalieae, the genus is characterized by capitula arranged in spikes or head-like clusters, few hermaphroditic central florets, truncate style branches with apical sweeping trichomes, pappus bristles connate at the base into a ring falling as a unit, and achenes with globose twin trichomes. Previous molecular phylogenetic studies have suggested the paraphyly of the genus, but have not provided a basis for redefining generic limits due to incomplete taxon sampling. To address this problem, DNA sequences from the plastid (trnL-F) and nuclear (ETS and ITS) genomes were analyzed from a broad taxon sample representing the full range of morphological variation known in the genus. Our results affirm that Gamochaeta is paraphyletic as presently circumscribed. Two clades can be recognized: one clade that includes the majority of the species currently assigned to Gamochaeta and a second clade that includes Gamochaetopsis, Stuckertiella and seven species of Gamochaeta. We present here a new circumscription of Gamochaeta, including two new combinations, Gamochaeta alpina and Gamochaeta peregrina, and the resurrection of Gamochaeta capitata. Our results also show Omalotheca supina, O. norvegica and O. sylvatica, which were placed by some authors in Gamochaeta or in Gnaphalium, form a monophyletic group distantly related to both genera.

Becc. é descrita e ilustrada para o Rio Grande do Sul. Comentários sobre a distribuição geográfica, conservação e afinidades são fornecidos.

A lectotype is designated here for Cocos poni, a species first proposed by Hauman in Las Palmeras de la Flora Argentina and currently treated as a synonym of Butia yatay or B. paraguayensis. Collections were made in the locality designated by Hauman based on his photos and description, and an epitype for this species is also designated here. Butia poni is recognized as a distinct species. This paper includes a description, photos, relationships, geographic distribution, and conservation assessment for Butia poni.

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Three new species of Cypella are described and illustrated for the complex of grasslands ecosystems of Rio de La Plata: C. aurinegra, C. guttata and C. ravenniana. The former is endemic to the region of the Taquari river, southern Cerro Largo Department, Uruguay, and is closely related to Cypella fucata and C. luteogibbosa, but can be distinguished from these species by its yellow flowers stained with dark-purple, narrower outer tepals, smaller inner tepals, shorter adaxial crests of style branches, slender filaments, and seeds with smooth testa. Cypella guttata occurs in Artigas and Rivera Departments, northern Uruguay, and in Santana do Livramento Municipality, southwestern Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. This species resembles C. herbertii and C. lapidosa, and can be distinguished by its flowers with central depression showing red spots, filaments narrower and tape-shaped, style branches with shorter adaxial crests, and small transverse stigmatic surface of the abaxial crest. The range of geographic distribution of C. ravenniana includes southern Misiones, and northeast Corrientes Provinces, Argentina, and west and northwest Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. This species can be recognized by its one-flowered spathes, borne on short peduncles. Cypella ravenniana was firstly misidentified as C. suffusa; however, having as base the type and topotypical collections of the latter species, C. suffusa is recognized by its two-flowered spathes borne on long peduncles, and perigone golden-yellow with deep central concavity. Data about phenology, geographic distribution, conservation and dichotomous keys to segregate these three new species from its related species are supplied.

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