Farm area and cultivated plants on Santa Cruz, 1932-1965, with remarks on other parts of Galapagos
2006
Lundh, J.P.
The development of the agricultural area in the Santa Cruz highlands, including Bellavista and the farmlands aboveit, is described. During the 1930s and 1940s, there was on Santa Cruz an unusually high number of residents interestedin experimenting with new plant species, and consequently the greatest variety of cultivated plants in the islandswas found there. I present observations of 148 species or varieties of cultivated plants, made largely on Santa Cruzin the period 1946–54, along with other observations made mostly on San Cristóbal in 1952–3 and during my residence on the latter island in 1960–5, when I also made monthly trips around the islands. Of the taxa mentioned,73 are probably pre-1930 introductions and another 17 possibly so. In the 1930s and 1940s, I found 55 new taxa, almost all of them on the farms in the highlands, and most on the properties of the Norwegians and Captain Castro. Threeintroductions of the 1950s or 1960s are also listed. Many of the taxa listed are first published records, either for the periods under consideration or earlier, since early botanical works left out nearly all the cultivated plants. Given that many former farmers have since gone over to raising cattle, some of the cultivated species registered during this early experimental period may since have disappeared from Galapagos.
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