Flora & Fauna

The Galapagos Islands lie in the Pacific Dry Belt, so most of the archipelago's land area is covered by semi-desert or desert vegetation. Only the higher parts of the larger islands receive enough rain to be considered tropical and lush. There are roughly 600 native taxa (species, subspecies and varieties) of vascular plants (42% are endemic) and some 190 species introduced by humans. Here we list the more common and better known plant species, grouped together according to ecological zones.
Perhaps more so than any other place in the world, the Flora and fauna of the Galapagos are unique. Charles Darwin's observations of these unique animals, their remarkable adaptation to a hostile environment, and the subtle variations between races of the same species living on different islands led directly to his theory of natural selection. The theory explains how the vast multitude of species on the Earth have evolved from a simple, singled-celled ancestor. The theory remains the single most important one in biology. Thus we can look back at nearly five centuries of human contact with the Galapagos and say that, without a doubt, the most important event in the human history of the Galapagos was Darwin's visit in 1835. Even without Darwin, though, the tale of human contact with the Galapagos is a fascinating one, and the Enchanted Islands, as the early mariners called them, have meant many things to many people from many lands