A 2020 Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden study revealed that over 46,000 native species have been cataloged in Brazilian territory. Nearly half of them are endemic, meaning they occur exclusively in Brazil and nowhere else in the world in a natural way. This staggering number reflects the diversity of the flora found in the country.
However, despite this rich natural environment, landscaping projects developed in Brazil were influenced by exotic species for a long time. This practice was mainly related to the influence of colonizing countries on Brazilian culture. It was not until around 1940, with Roberto Burle Marx, one of the leading landscape architects of the 20th century, that the incorporation of Brazilian native plants into national projects began to be properly embraced.
