An updated inventory of Brazilian seed plants is presented and offers important insights into the country's biodiversity. This work started in 2010, with the publication of the Plants and Fungi Catalogue, and has been updated since by more than 430 specialists working online. Brazil is home to 32,086 native Angiosperms and 23 native Gymnosperms, showing an increase of 3% in its species richness in relation to 2010. The Amazon Rainforest is the richest Brazilian biome for Gymnosperms, while the Atlantic Rainforest is the richest one for Angiosperms. There was a considerable increment in the number of species and endemism rates for biomes, except for the Amazon that showed a decrease of 2.5% of recorded endemics. However, well over half of Brazillian seed plant species (57.4%) is endemic to this territory. The proportion of life-forms varies among different biomes: trees are more expressive in the Amazon and Atlantic Rainforest biomes while herbs predominate in the Pampa, and lianas are more expressive in the Amazon, Atlantic Rainforest, and Pantanal. This compilation serves not only to quantify Brazilian biodiversity, but also to highlight areas where there information is lacking and to provide a framework for the challenge faced in conserving Brazil's unique and diverse flora.

Coevolutionary theory suggests that an arms race between plants and herbivores yields increased plant specialized metabolite diversity and the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution predicts that coevolutionary interactions vary across geographic scales. Consequently, plant specialized metabolite diversity is expected to be highest in coevolutionary hotspots, geographic regions, which exhibit strong reciprocal selection on the interacting species. Despite being well-established theoretical frameworks, technical limitations have precluded rigorous hypothesis testing. Here we aim at understanding how geographic separation over evolutionary time may have impacted chemical differentiation in the cosmopolitan plant genus Euphorbia. We use a combination of state-of-the-art computational mass spectral metabolomics tools together with cell-based high-throughput immunomodulatory testing. Our results show significant differences in specialized metabolite diversity across geographically separated phylogenetic clades. Chemical structural diversity of the highly toxic Euphorbia diterpenoids is significantly reduced in species native to the Americas, compared to Afro-Eurasia. The localization of these compounds to young stems and roots suggest a possible ecological relevance in herbivory defense. This is further supported by reduced immunomodulatory activity in the American subclade as well as herbivore distribution patterns. We conclude that computational mass spectrometric metabolomics coupled with relevant ecological data provide a strong tool for exploring plant specialized metabolite diversity in a chemo-evolutionary framework.

Aim: The aim of this study was to resolve the phylogenetic placement of island taxa, reconstruct ancestral origins and resolve competing hypotheses of dispersal patterns and biogeographical histories for oceanic island endemic taxa within subgenus Plantago (Plantaginaceae).Location: Juan Fernández Islands, the Auckland Islands, Lord Howe Island, New Amsterdam Island, New Zealand, Tasmania, Falkland Islands, Rapa Iti and the Hawaiian Islands.Taxon: Island endemics within Plantago (Plantaginaceae), a globally distributed taxonomic group comprising approximately 250 species.Methods: We use Bayesian phylogenetic and divergence time analyses and historical biogeographical analysis of molecular sequence data to infer the ancestral origins of the oceanic island species in Plantago.Results: Taxa within subgenus Plantago form clades based on geographic proximities and challenge previous phylogenetic relationships and classification based on morphology. We infer that biogeographic histories of oceanic island taxa from multiple islands were shaped by dispersal at different scales and possibly by different types of birds. The highly remote Hawaiian Islands and Rapa Iti were colonized from North American taxa in a pattern corresponding to known migration routes of large marine birds, rather than from New Zealand as previously hypothesized. The island endemics of Juan Fernández, the Falkland Islands, Lord Howe, Auckland Islands and New Zealand are found to have sources in the nearest continental areas. The analyses confirm recent speciation within subgenus Plantago – which is particularly heightened in island lineages in Hawaii and Rapa Iti – but show slightly older divergence times than previous molecular dating studies.Main conclusions: Using molecular data to infer ancestral ranges for plants with uncertain taxonomic relationships can greatly improve our understanding of biogeographical histories and help elucidate origins, dispersal modes and routes in widespread lineages with complex distribution patterns such as Plantago. We improve understanding of important floristic exchange areas between continents and islands as a result of long‐distance dispersal. We infer that a combination of both stepping stone dispersal and extreme long‐distance dispersal can shape insular floras, and that multiple floristic areas can be the sources of closely related island taxa. However, despite the successful dispersal of Plantago, radiation in island archipelagos is generally limited suggesting specific traits may limit diversification.