Scientists from megadiverse countries, such as Brazil, face huge challenges in gathering and analyzing information about species richness and abundance. In Brazil, speciesLink is an e-infrastructure that offers free and open access to data from more than 300 biological and data collections. SpeciesLink's thematic network, INCT-Virtual Herbarium of Plants and Fungi and the List of Species of the Brazilian Flora, are used as primary data sources to develop Lacunas, an information system with a public web interface that generates detailed reports of the status of plant species occurrence data. Lacunas also integrates information about endemism, conservation status, and collecting efforts over time. Here we describe the motivation and the functionality of this system, showing how it can be useful in detecting under-sampled plant species and geographic areas. We show examples of how knowledge can be extracted from biodiversity primary data using Lacunas. For instance, Lacunas report revealed that 111 angiosperm species (10.3 %), currently considered Data Deficient (DD) in the Official List of Threatened Brazilian Flora, have their distribution well characterized. In addition, the situation of Attalea funifera, a native palm classified as DD, was analyzed in detail, together with other use cases. Information presented in Lacunas reports can thus be used by scientists and policy-makers to help evaluate the status of species occurrence data and prioritize digitization and collecting efforts, as well as some features concerning its conservation status. As Lacunas offers a public online interface, it may also become a valuable tool for helping decision-making processes to become more dynamic and transparent. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.231109131(2013) Atlas of Living Australia, , http://www.ala.org.au/, ALA. Accessed 16 Sept 2013Almeida, J.R.M., Aquino, R.C.M.P., Monteiro, S.N., Tensile mechanical properties, morphological aspects and chemical characterization of piassava (Attalea funifera) fibers (2006) Compos Part A, 37, pp. 1473-1479Anderson, R.P., Lew, D., Peterson, A.T., Evaluating predictive models of species' distributions: criteria for selecting optimal models (2003) Ecol Mod, 162, pp. 211-232Arzberger, P., Schroeder, P., Beaulieu, A., Bowker, G., Casey, K., Laaksonen, L., Moorman, D., Wouters, P., An international framework to promote access to data (2004) Science, 303, pp. 1777-1778Bachman, S., Moat, J., Hill, A.W., de la Torre, J., Scott, B., Supporting Red List threat assessments with GeoCAT: geospatial conservation assessment tool (2011) Zookeys, 150, pp. 117-126(2005) Lista da flora brasileira ameaçada de extinção, , http://www.biodiversitas.org.br/floraBr/, Biodiversitas Foundation. Accessed 20 May 2012Butchart, S.H.M., Bird, J.P., Data Deficient birds on the IUCN Red List: what don't we know and why does it matter? (2010) Biol Conserv, 143, pp. 239-247Costa, C.M.R., Herrmann, G., Martins, C.S., Lins, L.V., Lamas, I.R., (1998) Biodiversidade Em Minas Gerais-Um Atlas Para Sua conservação, , Belo Horizonte: Fundação Biodivesitas(2013) SpeciesLink, , http://splink.cria.org.br/, CRIA. Accessed 20 Feb 2012(2013) SpeciesLink, , http://splink.cria.org.br/, CRIA. Accessed 16 Sept 2013(2013) Biogeografia da Flora do Brasil, , http://biogeo.inct.florabrasil.net/, CRIA. Accessed 23 Feb 2013Cunningham, A.B., Opportunities and constraints on sustainable harvest: plant populations (2001) Applied Ethnobotany: People, Wild Plant Use and Conservation, pp. 144-191. , A. B. Cunningham (Ed.), New York: Earthscan PublicationsDavis, S.D., Heywood, V.H., Herrera-MacBryde, O., Villa-Lobos, J., Hamilton, A.C., (1997) Centres of Plant Diversity: A Guide and Strategy for Their Conservation, , Oxford: Information PressFarber, O., Kadmon, R., Assessment of alternative approaches for bioclimatic modeling with special emphasis on the Mahalanobis distance (2003) Ecol Model, 160, pp. 115-130Forzza, R.C., (2010) Catálogo das Plantas e Fungos do Brasil, , Andrea Jakobsson Estúdio, Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, Rio de JaneiroForzza, R.C., Leitman, P.M., Costa, A.F., (2012) Lista de espécies da flora do Brasil, , http://floradobrasil.jbrj.gov.br/2012, Accessed 10 May 2012Geeta, R., Levy, A., Thoch, J.M., Mark, M., Taxonomists and the CBD (2004) Science, 305, pp. 1105-1106Giulietti, A.M., Pirani, J.R., Patterns of geographic distribution of some plant species from the Espinhaço Range, Minas Gerais and Bahia, Brazil (1988) Proceedings of a workshop on neotropical distribution patterns, pp. 39-69. , In: Vanzolini PE, Heyer WR (eds). Academia Brasileira de Ciências, Rio de JaneiroHernandez, P.A., Graham, C.H., Master, L.L., Albert, D.L., The effect of sample size and species characteristics on performance of different species distribution modeling methods (2006) Ecography, 29, pp. 773-785Hirzel, A.H., Hausser, J., Chessel, D., Perrin, N., Ecological-niche factor analysis: how to compute habitat-suitability maps without absence data? (2002) Ecology, 83, pp. 2027-2036(2012) INCT Virtual Herbarium of Plants and Fungi, , http://inct.florabrasil.net, INCT-Virtual Herbarium. Accessed 20 Oct 2013(2011) Guidelines for using the IUCN Red List categories and criteria, , http://www.iucnredlist.org/documents/RedListGuidelines.pdf, IUCN Standards and Petitions SubcommitteeKadmon, R., Farber, O., Danin, A., A systematic analysis of factors affecting the performance of climatic envelope models (2003) Ecol Appl, 13, pp. 853-867Kamino, L.H.Y., Siqueira, M.F., Sánchez-Tapia, A., Stehmann, J.R., Reassessment of the extinction risk of endemic species in the Neotropics: how can modelling tools help us? (2012) Brazil J Nat Conserv, 10, pp. 191-198(2012) Lacunas de conhecimento da flora e dos fungos do Brasil-INCT-Virtual Herbarium, , http://lacunas.inct.florabrasil.net/, Lacunas. Accessed 10 Feb 2013Lastres, H.M.M., Albagli, S., Introdução: Chaves para ao terceiro milênio na era do conhecimento (1999) Informação E globalização Na Era Do Conhecimento, pp. 7-26. , H. M. M. Lastres and S. Albagli (Eds.), Rio de Janeiro: Editora Campus LtdaMaddison, D.R., Guralnick, R., Hill, A., Reysenbach, A.L., McDade, L.A., Ramping up biodiversity discovery via online quantum contributions (2012) Trends Ecol Evol, 27, pp. 72-77Mello-Silva, R., (2012) Velloziaceaein Lista de Espécies da Flora do Brasil, , http://checklist.florabrasil.net/public_20130301/2012/FB000245, Jardim Botânico do Rio de JaneiroMittermeier, R.A., (1997) Megadiversity: Earth's Biologically Wealthiest Nations, , Monterrey: CEMEX(2008) Normative Instruction No 06, from September 23, 2008, , MMA, Brasília: Ministério do Meio AmbienteMuñoz, M.E.S., Giovanni, R., Siqueira, M.F., OpenModeller: a generic approach to species' potential distribution modelling (2011) Geoinformatica, 15, pp. 111-135Myers, N., Mittermeier, R.A., Mittermeier, C.G., da Fonseca, G.A.B., Kent, J., Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities (2000) Nature, 403, pp. 853-860Paglia, A.P., Fonseca, G.A.B., Assessing changes in the conservation status of threatened Brazilian vertebrates (2009) Biodivers Conserv, 18, pp. 3563-3577Peterson, A.T., Soberón, J., Pearson, R.G., Anderson, R.P., Martínez-Meyer, E., Nakamura, M., Araújo, M.B., (2011) Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions, , Princeton: Princeton University PressPhillips, S.J., Anderson, R.P., Shapire, R.E., Maximum entropy modelling of species geographic distributions (2006) Ecol Model, 190, pp. 231-259Porembski, S., Barthlott, W., Granitic and gneissic outcrops (inselbergs) as centers of diversity for desiccation-tolerant vascular plants (2000) Plant Ecol, 151, pp. 19-28Reichman, O.J., Jones, M.B., Schildhauer, M.P., Challenges and opportunities of open data in ecology (2011) Science, 331, pp. 703-705Rivers, M.C., Taylor, L., Brummitt, N.A., Meagher, T.R., Roberts, D.L., Lughadha, E.N., How many herbarium specimens are needed to detect threatened species? (2011) Biol Conserv, 144, pp. 2541-2547Santana, G., Tourism development in coastal areas-Brazil: economic, demand and environmental issues (2003) J Coast Res, 35, pp. 85-93Scarano, F.R., Martinelli, G., Brazilian list of threatened plant species: reconciling scientific uncertainty and political decision-making (2010) Nat Conserv, 8, pp. 13-18Schofield, P.N., Eppig, J., Huala, E., Angelis, M.H., Harvey, M., Davidson, D., Weaver, T., Hancock, J.M., Sustaining the data and bioresource commons (2010) Science, 330, pp. 592-593Schölkopf, B., Platt, J., Shawe-Taylor, J., Smola, A.J., Williamson, R.C., Estimating the support of a high-dimensional distribution (2001) Neural Comput, 13, pp. 1443-1471Sousa-Baena, M.S., Attalea funifera (v1) in Biogeografia da Flora do Brasil (2012) INCT-virtual herbarium of plants and fungi, , http://biogeo.inct.florabrasil.net/proc/200Sousa-Baena, M.S., Astronium fraxinifolium (v1) in Biogeografia da Flora do Brasil (2012) INCT-virtual herbarium of plants and fungi, , http://biogeo.inct.florabrasil.net/proc/200Sousa-Baena, M.S., Garcia, L.C., Peterson, A.T., Completeness of digital accessible knowledge of the plants of Brazil and priorities for survey and inventory (2013) Divers Distrib., , doi: 10. 1111/ddi. 12136Sousa-Baena, M.S., Garcia, L.C., Peterson, A.T., Knowledge behind conservation status decisions: Data basis for 'Data Deficient' Brazilian plant species (2013) Biol Conserv., , doi: 10. 1016/j. biocon. 2013. 06. 034Stockwell, D.R.B., Peterson, A.T., Effects of sample size on accuracy of species distribution models (2002) Ecol Model, 148, pp. 1-13(2007) Access to biological collections data-ABCD, , http://www.tdwg.org/activities/abcd/, TDWG. Biodiversity Information Standards-TDWGVamosi, J., Vamosi, S.M., Extinction risk escalates in the tropics (2008) PLoS ONE, 3, pp. 1-6Voeks, R.A., Extraction and tropical rain forest conservation in eastern Brazil (1996) Tropical Rainforest Research-Current Issues, pp. 477-487. , D. S. Edwards, W. E. Booth, and S. C. Choy (Eds.), Dordrecht: Kluwer AcademicWheeler, Q.D., Raven, P.H., Wilson, E.O., Response GEETA ET AL (2004) Science, 305, p. 1105Wheeler, Q.D., Raven, P.H., Wilson, E.O., Taxonomy: impediment or expedient? (2004) Science, 303, p. 285Wisz, M.S., Hijmans, R.J., Li, J., Peterson, A.T., Graham, C.H., Guisan, A., Effects of sample size on the performance of species distribution models (2008) Divers Distrib, 14, pp. 763-773