The Galapagos Islands remained botanically unexplored for almost 260 years after their discovery in 1535. Botany is an area of Galapagos natural history that has too long been overshadowed by the archipelago's famed fauna, such us the giant tortoises and Darwin's finches.
There are 749 species of plants in the Galapagos Islands. Of these, 216 are endemic and occur nowhere else in the world. These endemic species, subspecies, and varieties typically resemble mainland plants, yet they are slightly different. This makes sense when one considers that their ancestors originated on the mainland. After becoming established in the Galapagos Islands, they began to adapt to their new environment.
Adaptation, as a result of natural selection, is the driving force behind speciation, the formation of new species. Over generations, offspring of these colonizers began to take on their own particular sets of characteristics. Several of these plants are now so different from their mainland counterparts that taxonomists consider them distinct species.
The picture shows us the typical littoral (coastal) zone of the Galapagos. Plants that live in this zone must be capable of surviving in a salt-rich environment.
