Context: The island of New Guinea, the world’s second-largest in area and the largest tropical island, has the globe’s richest collection of plants, a study by the University of Zurich in Switzerland. 
Key findings of the study

• Some 99 scientists from 56 institutions and 19 countries probed online catalogues, repositories of institutions and datasets made by taxonomists to come up with a list of 13,634 plant species of New Guinea and its surrounding islands. The list has been verified by experts. 
• However, the university said that more species are waiting to be discovered and another 3,000-4,000 could be added to the list in the years to come. 
• The number of plant species that the list enumerates — 13,634 — is 20 per cent more species than Madagascar or Borneo. The plant family with the maximum number of species is orchids while a third of the species are trees. Some 68 per cent of the plants in the list are endemic and not found anywhere else in the world. 

Key Facts about New Guinea

• It is world’s second-largest in area and the largest tropical island.
• The number of plant species that the list enumerates is 13,634 which is 20 % more species than Madagascar or Borneo.
• Some 68 % of the plants in the list are endemic and not found anywhere else in the world.

Location of New Guinea

• New Guinea is an island of the eastern Malay Archipelago, in the western Pacific Ocean, north of Australia.
• It is bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Bismarck and Solomon seas to the east, the Coral Sea and Torres Strait to the south, and the Arafura Sea to the southwest.