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New Guinea has the world’s richest island flora

Author

Listed:
  • Rodrigo Cámara-Leret

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    University of Zurich)

  • David G. Frodin

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Frits Adema

    (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)

  • Christiane Anderson

    (University of Michigan Herbarium)

  • Marc S. Appelhans

    (University of Göttingen)

  • George Argent

    (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)

  • Susana Arias Guerrero

    (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)

  • Peter Ashton

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • William J. Baker

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Anders S. Barfod

    (Aarhus University)

  • David Barrington

    (University of Vermont)

  • Renata Borosova

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Gemma L. C. Bramley

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Marie Briggs

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Sven Buerki

    (Boise State University)

  • Daniel Cahen

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Martin W. Callmander

    (Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève)

  • Martin Cheek

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Cheng-Wei Chen

    (Independent consultant)

  • Barry J. Conn

    (The University of Sydney)

  • Mark J. E. Coode

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Iain Darbyshire

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Sally Dawson

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • John Dransfield

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Clare Drinkell

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Brigitta Duyfjes

    (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)

  • Atsushi Ebihara

    (National Museum of Nature and Science)

  • Zacky Ezedin

    (University of Minnesota
    New Guinea Binatang Research Center)

  • Long-Fei Fu

    (Guangxi Institute of Botany, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Osia Gideon

    (The Papua New Guinea University of Technology)

  • Deden Girmansyah

    (Herbarium Bogoriense)

  • Rafaël Govaerts

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Helen Fortune-Hopkins

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Gustavo Hassemer

    (Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul)

  • Alistair Hay

    (Royal Botanic Garden Sydney)

  • Charlie D. Heatubun

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    Universitas Papua
    Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Daerah Provinsi Papua Barat)

  • D. J. Nicholas Hind

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Peter Hoch

    (Missouri Botanical Garden)

  • Peter Homot

    (Papua New Guinea Forest Research Institute)

  • Peter Hovenkamp

    (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)

  • Mark Hughes

    (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)

  • Matthew Jebb

    (The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland)

  • Laura Jennings

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Tiberius Jimbo

    (Papua New Guinea Forest Research Institute)

  • Michael Kessler

    (University of Zurich)

  • Ruth Kiew

    (Forest Research Institute Malaysia)

  • Sandra Knapp

    (Natural History Museum)

  • Penniel Lamei

    (Papua New Guinea Forest Research Institute)

  • Marcus Lehnert

    (University of Bonn
    Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)

  • Gwilym P. Lewis

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Hans Peter Linder

    (University of Zurich)

  • Stuart Lindsay

    (Native Plants Centre, National Parks Board)

  • Yee Wen Low

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    National Parks Board
    University of Aberdeen)

  • Eve Lucas

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Jeffrey P. Mancera

    (University of the Philippines Manila)

  • Alexandre K. Monro

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Alison Moore

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • David J. Middleton

    (National Parks Board)

  • Hidetoshi Nagamasu

    (Kyoto University)

  • Mark F. Newman

    (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)

  • Eimear Nic Lughadha

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Pablo H. A. Melo

    (São Paulo State University)

  • Daniel J. Ohlsen

    (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
    The University of Melbourne)

  • Caroline M. Pannell

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    University of Oxford
    Queen’s University Belfast)

  • Barbara Parris

    (Fern Research Foundation)

  • Laura Pearce

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Darin S. Penneys

    (University of North Carolina)

  • Leon R. Perrie

    (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa)

  • Peter Petoe

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    Aarhus University)

  • Axel Dalberg Poulsen

    (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)

  • Ghillean T. Prance

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • J. Peter Quakenbush

    (Western Michigan University)

  • Niels Raes

    (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)

  • Michele Rodda

    (National Parks Board)

  • Zachary S. Rogers

    (New Mexico State University)

  • André Schuiteman

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Pedro Schwartsburd

    (Universidade Federal de Viçosa)

  • Robert W. Scotland

    (University of Oxford)

  • Mark P. Simmons

    (Colorado State University)

  • David A. Simpson

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin)

  • Peter Stevens

    (Missouri Botanical Garden)

  • Michael Sundue

    (University of Vermont)

  • Weston Testo

    (University of Florida)

  • Anna Trias-Blasi

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Ian Turner

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    National Parks Board)

  • Timothy Utteridge

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Lesley Walsingham

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Bruce L. Webber

    (CSIRO Land and Water
    University of Western Australia)

  • Ran Wei

    (Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • George D. Weiblen

    (University of Minnesota
    University of Minnesota)

  • Maximilian Weigend

    (University of Bonn)

  • Peter Weston

    (Royal Botanic Garden Sydney)

  • Willem Wilde

    (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)

  • Peter Wilkie

    (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)

  • Christine M. Wilmot-Dear

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

  • Hannah P. Wilson

    (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
    University of Glasgow)

  • John R. I. Wood

    (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    University of Oxford)

  • Li-Bing Zhang

    (Missouri Botanical Garden
    Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Peter C. Welzen

    (Naturalis Biodiversity Center
    University of Leiden)

Abstract

New Guinea is the world’s largest tropical island and has fascinated naturalists for centuries1,2. Home to some of the best-preserved ecosystems on the planet3 and to intact ecological gradients—from mangroves to tropical alpine grasslands—that are unmatched in the Asia-Pacific region4,5, it is a globally recognized centre of biological and cultural diversity6,7. So far, however, there has been no attempt to critically catalogue the entire vascular plant diversity of New Guinea. Here we present the first, to our knowledge, expert-verified checklist of the vascular plants of mainland New Guinea and surrounding islands. Our publicly available checklist includes 13,634 species (68% endemic), 1,742 genera and 264 families—suggesting that New Guinea is the most floristically diverse island in the world. Expert knowledge is essential for building checklists in the digital era: reliance on online taxonomic resources alone would have inflated species counts by 22%. Species discovery shows no sign of levelling off, and we discuss steps to accelerate botanical research in the ‘Last Unknown’8.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodrigo Cámara-Leret & David G. Frodin & Frits Adema & Christiane Anderson & Marc S. Appelhans & George Argent & Susana Arias Guerrero & Peter Ashton & William J. Baker & Anders S. Barfod & David Barr, 2020. "New Guinea has the world’s richest island flora," Nature, Nature, vol. 584(7822), pages 579-583, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:584:y:2020:i:7822:d:10.1038_s41586-020-2549-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2549-5
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