Format: ORAL

Mauricio Bonifacino1, John C. Semple2, Morgan R. Gostel3, Nicola G. Bergh4, Benoit Loeuille5, Paola de L. Ferreira6, Alexander N. Sennikov7, Ndia Roque8 , Gustavo Heiden9, Guy Nesom10, Liliana Katinas 11

1 Facultad de Agronomia & Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay. 2 Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario Canada 3 Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Fort Worth, Texas, USA. 4 The Compton Herbarium, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa. 5 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 6 Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark 7 Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Finland 8 Federal University of Bahia, Brazil 9 Embrapa Clima Temperado, Pelotas, Brazil 10 Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 11 División Plantas Vasculares, Museo de La Plata, Pcia. Buenos Aires, Argentina

Online taxonomic databases are fundamental resources for a post-2020 framework for the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, particularly Target 1 of that effort an online flora for all known plants. Launched in 2019 as a revitalization of the Global Compositae Checklist, the Global Compositae Database is a freely accessible, expert-curated, online taxonomic database of all names for the largest angiosperm family Compositae (Asteraceae) that is generously supported by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and maintained by taxonomic specialists from The International Compositae Alliance (TICA). The team behind the data curation includes researchers from different backgrounds, with taxonomic expertise across the many tribes currently recognized in the family. This is a formidable task, involving almost 170,000 names for ca. 33,000 accepted species, and so TICA is actively recruiting additional taxonomic specialists i. The development of this database highlights the importance of collaboration and is being coordinated, in part, through a larger collaboration with the World Flora Online, for which TICA serves as the Taxonomic Expert Network (TEN). The database is hosted on the WoRMS platform, accessible via the TICA website (www.compositae.org), has a friendly interface, and provides tremendous flexibility in terms of editing and adding taxonomic data. Current challenges include a lack of specific resources to curate the database, and a general shortage of expert taxonomists. Among the groups in Compositae with most up-to-date information are the basal grade of the family, and various elements of the subfamily Asteroideae. A broader geographic participation of TICA members and taxonomic specialists, together with a series of workshops aimed at facilitating the access and usage of the database, will help increase momentum in advancing this important resource.