FLORA of SAN CRISTOBAL

The Galapagos archipleago is home to about 250 endemic species, about half of all those living on the islands.  San Cristobal has especially dense vegetation on its southern end, and an abundance of species around it's Junco Lagoon, the only freshwater body on the islands.  There are several plants which are endemic to San Cristobal only, and a few which live on only 2 or 3 of the islands.  These include:
Salt Bushes
Spiny Shrubs
Palo Santo
Muyuyos Tree
Yellow-Green Shrubs
Sesuvium





Scalesia   © Peter v. Sengbusch - b-online@botanik.uni-hamburg.de
There are many species of plants which are characteristic of the Galapagos which live in great numbers on San Cristobal.  The most famous of these are the Scalesia tree, the "daisy tree", the miconia, used in coffee production, the lava cactus, prickly pear cacti, and giant ferns. 

Blackberry bushes are an introduced species which is of great concern becuase they tend to take over.

On San Cristobal there are several very distinct growth zones.  The lowest, the Arid Zone, is desertlike and home to the largest number of species on the island, including many types of deciduous tree and other plants adapted to drought, like cacti.  The Transition Zone, the next up, is, as you might expect, more difficult to characterize.  Following the Transition Zone is the Scalesia Zone, a cloudy forest filled with the endemic Scalesia tree and other evergreens.  Next is the Brown Zone, another transition zone, full of trees draped with lichens, mosses and ferns.  The Miconia Zone, present only on San Cristobal and to a lesser extent on Santa Cruz, is the next area, densely covered in Miconia shrubs.  The last zone, the Pampa Zone, occurs only on a few islands.  San Cristobal's Pampa zone is above the tree line for that part of the world at about 4000 feet elevation.  It is very wet and grasses and sedges grow there.