Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-10T17:39:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2020-08-05 Royal Society International Exchanges Carlsberg Foundation Danish Research Council National Natural Science Foundation of China Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) US National Science Foundation National Parks Board, Singapore Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Synthesys Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Edinburgh Botanic Garden (Sibbald) Trust M. L. MacIntyre Begonia Trust Scottish Government's Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services Division New Guinea is the world's largest tropical island and has fascinated naturalists for centuries(1,2). Home to some of the best-preserved ecosystems on the planet(3)and to intact ecological gradients-from mangroves to tropical alpine grasslands-that are unmatched in the Asia-Pacific region(4,5), it is a globally recognized centre of biological and cultural diversity(6,7). 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). A catalogue of the vascular flora of New Guinea indicates that this island is the most floristically diverse in the world, and that 68% of the species identified are endemic to New Guinea. Royal Bot Gardens, London, England Nat Biodivers Ctr, Leiden, Netherlands Univ Michigan Herbarium, Ann Arbor, MI USA Univ Gottingen, Dept Systemat Biodivers & Evolut Plants, Albrecht von Haller Inst Plant Sci, Gottingen, Germany Royal Bot Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland Aarhus Univ, Dept Biosci, Aarhus, Denmark Univ Vermont, Dept Plant Biol, Pringle Herbarium, Burlington, VT USA Boise State Univ, Dept Biol Sci, Boise, ID 83725 USA Conservatoire & Jardin Bot Ville Geneve, Chambesy, Switzerland Univ Sydney, Sch Life & Environm Sci, Sydney, NSW, Australia Natl Museum Nat & Sci, Dept Bot, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan Univ Minnesota, Dept Plant & Microbial Biol, St Paul, MN 55108 USA New Guinea Binatang Res Ctr, Madang, Papua N Guinea Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Reg & Chinese Acad Sci, Guangxi Key Lab Plant Conservat & Restorat Ecol K, Guangxi Inst Bot, Guilin, Peoples R China Papua New Guinea Univ Technol, Lae, Papua N Guinea Herbarium Bogoriense, Bogor, Indonesia Univ Fed Mato Grosso do Sul, Tres Lagoas Campus, Tres Lagoas, Brazil Royal Bot Garden Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Univ Papua, Fak Kehutanan, Manokwari, Indonesia Baden Penelitian & Pengembangan Daerah Prov Papua, Manokwari, Indonesia Missouri Bot Garden, St Louis, MO USA Papua New Guinea Forest Res Inst, Lae, Papua N Guinea Natl Bot Gardens Ireland, Glasnevin, Ireland Univ Zurich, Dept Systemat & Evolutionary Bot, Zurich, Switzerland Forest Res Inst Malaysia, Kepong, Malaysia Nat Hist Museum, Dept Life Sci, London, England Univ Bonn, Nees Inst Biodivers Plants, Bonn, Germany Martin Luther Univ Halle Wittenberg, Inst Biol, Herbarium, Halle, Germany Natl Pk Board, Nat Plants Ctr, Singapore, Singapore Natl Pk Board, Singapore Bot Gardens, Singapore, Singapore Univ Aberdeen, Sch Biol Sci, Aberdeen, Scotland Univ Philippines Manila, Coll Arts & Sci, Dept Biol, Manila, Philippines Kyoto Univ, Kyoto Univ Museum, Kyoto, Japan Sao Paulo State Univ, Inst Biosci, Rio Claro, Brazil Royal Bot Gardens Victoria, South Yarra, Vic, Australia Univ Melbourne, Sch BioSci, Parkville, Vic, Australia Univ Oxford, Dept Plant Sci, Oxford, England Queens Univ Belfast, Marine Lab, Portaferry, North Ireland Fern Res Fdn, Kerikeri, New Zealand Univ N Carolina, Wilmington, NC USA Museum New Zealand Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand Western Michigan Univ, Dept Biol Sci, Kalamazoo, MI 49008 USA New Mexico State Univ, Dept Anim & Range Sci, Las Cruces, NM 88003 USA Univ Fed Vicosa, Dept Biol Vegetal, Vicosa, MG, Brazil Colorado State Univ, Dept Biol, Ft Collins, CO 80523 USA Trinity Coll Dublin, Sch Nat Sci, Dept Bot, Dublin, Ireland Univ Florida, Dept Biol, Gainesville, FL USA CSIRO Land & Water, Floreat, WA, Australia Univ Western Australia, Sch Biol Sci, Crawley, WA, Australia Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Bot, Beijing, Peoples R China Univ Minnesota, Bell Museum, St Paul, MN 55108 USA Univ Glasgow, Inst Biodivers Anim Hlth & Comparat Med, Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland Chinese Acad Sci, Chengdu Inst Biol, Chengdu, Peoples R China Leiden Univ, Inst Biol Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands Univ Zurich, Dept Evolutionary Biol & Environm Studies, Zurich, Switzerland Sao Paulo State Univ, Inst Biosci, Rio Claro, Brazil Royal Society International Exchanges: IE 170241 National Natural Science Foundation of China: 31570307 CNPq: 153430/2018-4 US National Science Foundation: DEB-1457366 US National Science Foundation: DEB-1754667 US National Science Foundation: DEB-0515678 US National Science Foundation: DEB-0816749 US National Science Foundation: DEB-0841885 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft: LE 1826/3-1 Synthesys: GB-TAF-6305 FAPESP: 2015/13112-7 FAPESP: 2018/09379-6