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Abstract PremisePteridophytes—vascular land plants that disperse by spores—are a powerful system for studying plant evolution, particularly with respect to the impact of abiotic factors on evolutionary trajectories through deep time. However, our ability to use pteridophytes to investigate such questions—or to capitalize on the ecological and conservation‐related applications of the group—has been impaired by the relative isolation of the neo‐ and paleobotanical research communities and by the absence of large‐scale biodiversity data sources. MethodsHere we present the Pteridophyte Collections Consortium (PCC), an interdisciplinary community uniting neo‐ and paleobotanists, and the associated PteridoPortal, a publicly accessible online portal that serves over three million pteridophyte records, including herbarium specimens, paleontological museum specimens, and iNaturalist observations. We demonstrate the utility of the PteridoPortal through discussion of three example PteridoPortal‐enabled research projects. ResultsThe data within the PteridoPortal are global in scope and are queryable in a flexible manner. The PteridoPortal contains a taxonomic thesaurus (a digital version of a Linnaean classification) that includes both extant and extinct pteridophytes in a common phylogenetic framework. The PteridoPortal allows applications such as greatly accelerated classic floristics, entirely new “next‐generation” floristic approaches, and the study of environmentally mediated evolution of functional morphology across deep time. DiscussionThe PCC and PteridoPortal provide a comprehensive resource enabling novel research into plant evolution, ecology, and conservation across deep time, facilitating rapid floristic analyses and other biodiversity‐related investigations, and providing new opportunities for education and community engagement. 

As part of ongoing work on the Flora of the Southeastern United States (Weakley & Southeastern Flora Team 2023) and related projects, as well as for general floristic, conservation, and scientific work in eastern North America, it is essential to document taxonomic and nomenclatural changes and significant distribution records. Here, we propose six new species of graminoids (two Rhynchospora, three Dichanthelium, and one Anatherum)—five from fire-maintained pine savannas and embedded wetlands of the southeastern Coastal Plain and one from the floristically and ecologically related fire-maintained pine savannas of North Andros Island in The Bahamas. We provide rationale and documentation for the “taxonomic resurrection” of Vaccinium ashei, an economically important member of Vaccinium sect. Cyanococcus, based on morphology, estimation of ploidy level with flow cytometry, and phylogenomic analysis based on high-throughput DNA sequencing. We make four new combinations in Convolvulus to accommodate the inclusion of Calystegia in Convolvulus to resolve paraphyly. We also make six new combinations necessary to recognize sect. Leptopogon of Andropogon at generic rank, as Anatherum, based on the phylogenetic work of other researchers and the previously incomplete transfer of recognized species to Anatherum, providing the needed names to recognize this group of species in genus Anatherum in North American floristic treatments. We document the surprising discovery of Carex lutea, previously believed to be endemic to two counties in eastern North Carolina, in two counties in the panhandle of Florida, and a county in eastern South Carolina—discoveries aided by iNaturalist and Facebook. We document new states as being within the distribution ranges of additional species: Quercus similis (Florida), Juncus brachycephalus (Arkansas and Missouri), Rhexia mariana var. mariana (Ohio), Asarum acuminatum and Elionurus tripsacoides (Alabama), and Mecardonia procumbens (Georgia). Other important distributional records, many representing rediscoveries of conservationally significant, extant populations of plants previously considered of only historical occurrence in a state, are also reported: Alabama (Arnica acaulis, Asclepias connivens, Berberis canadensis, Bulbostylis warei, Ctenodon viscidulus, Parnassia grandifolia, and Pinguicula pumila) and Georgia and Florida (Lobelia boykinii).