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.

The genus Pterocaulon (Asteraceae) is included in the tribe Plucheeae [1]. About half of the Pterocaulon species have been analyzed previously and many compounds have been isolated: caffeoylquinic acids from P. virgatum [2]; thiophene acetylenes and flavanols from P. virgatum [3]; polyacetylenes from P. alopecuroides, P. balansae, P. lanatum, and P. rugosum [4]; hydroxy-α-caryophyllene from P. serrulatum [5]; flavonoids from P. sphacelatum [6], P. purpurascens [7], and P. alopecuroides [8]; and coumarins from P. balansae, P. lanatum [4], P. purpurascens [9][10][11], P. redolens [12], P. virgatum [13][14][15][16], P. polystachyum [17], and P. alopecuroides [8]. Several species of the genus are used in folk medicine as insecticides and agents against snake bites [15].In this work we investigate the occurrence of coumarins in exudates of the species of Pterocaulon native to Brazil and isolate the most abundant compounds. The taxonomic significance of these compounds is discussed.In Plucheeae the only genus that contains coumarins is Pterocaulon in which 40 different coumarins were previously found in ten species. In this work we analyzed five other species native to South Brazil, and coumarins were found in all of them. These data indicate that these compounds could be considered chemotaxonomic markers for the genus Pterocaulon.Although the species of Pterocaulon exhibit other classes of compounds, coumarins are characteristic of the genus. In Pterocaulon, coumarins can be di-, tri-, or tetraoxygenated, and all of them are 6,7 oxygenated.Pterocaulon alopecuroides and P. polystachyum were studied previously, but in this work we investigated the exudate instead of the extract of the powdered plant. The exudate of P. alopecuroides afforded 5-methoxy-6,7-methylenedioxycoumarin (1) and 7-(2,3-epoxy-3-methyl-3-butyloxy)-6-methoxycoumarin (2), previously found in P. virgatum [13,18]. To our knowledge this is the first report on the occurrence of coumarins 1 and 2 in Pterocaulon alopecuroides. From this plant, the compounds 7-(2,3-dihydroxy-3-methylbutyloxy)-6-methoxycoumarin and 7-(2,3-dihydroxy-3-methylbutyloxy)-5-hydroxy-6-coumarin were previously obtained [8]. This difference could be due to the extraction method employed and to the fact that the plants were collected in different places. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to state that the plant exudate contained several coumarins of which only the most abundant were isolated.The exudate of P. polystachyum, besides 5-methoxy-6,7-methylenedioxycoumarin (1), afforded three other coumarins, namely ayapin (3), prenyletin (4), and prenyletin methyl-ether (5). These compounds were previously isolated from the chloroform extract of the powdered plant material [17,19].

Este estudo objetivou verificar o perfil de utilização de plantas medicinais por moradores do município de Hulha Negra, com população predominantemente de origem alemã e que está inserido no Bioma Pampa (RS), Brasil. O cálculo amostral compreendeu a população residente da zona urbana (2.909 mil habitantes). e resultou em valor de N= 344 indivíduos. Visitas domiciliares foram realizadas em dias úteis da semana entre agosto a novembro de 2011. Aplicou-se um questionário com abordagem sócio-demográfica e utilização de plantas medicinais, com base em condição de saúde. A categorização dos problemas de saúde à partir do motivo de uso das plantas foi realizada por sistemas orgânicos. As plantas foram classificads como nativas do Bioma Pampa e exóticas ao bioma. Foi possível acessar 137 moradores, sendo 128 usuários de plantas medicinais. Destes, 69,5% representados por mulheres, 39,8% com idades superior a 50 anos e 46,8% com nove anos de estudo ou mais. As famílias botânicas mais prevalentes foram Asteraceae (21%) e Laminaceae (16%), sendo a Macela a planta mais citada (55). Os principais motivos de uso de plantas medicinais foram os sintomas associados ao sistema digestivo (29%), as condições de dor e inflamação (24%) e ligadas ao sistema cardiovascular (14%). Do total de espécies identificadas (67) 38,8% corresponderam a plantas nativas do Bioma Pampa.

Pollen morphology of the five Brazilian species of the genus Fevillea (F. bahiensis, F. cordifolia, F. passiflora, F. pedatifolia, and F. trilobata) was studied using light and scanning electron microscopy. Pollen in these species is generally stenopalynous, which is in agreement with observations in previous studies of other species. Pollen is shed in monads and characterised by being isopolar, radially symmetric, prolate, and striate. Pollen is of medium size, tricolporate, with long and narrow colpi, a circular endoaperture and a reduced polar area. The exine is up to 2 μm thick.