Calandrinia galapagosa St. John is found only on San

Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos archipelago, where it is

severely threatened by feral goats. A population at Cerro

Colorado is protected by an exclosure constructed for this

purpose in 1993. Individuals of this population have white

or pinkish white flowers with a green stem, whereas the

population at La Galapaguera, has pinkish white flowers

with a purple stem

Jaramillo, Patricia

English

Aquatic Commons

28 NOTICIAS DE GALÁPAGOS No. 62
ABSTRACT
Calandrinia galapagosa St. John is found only on San
Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos archipelago, where it is
severely threatened by feral goats. A population at Cerro
Colorado is protected by an exclosure constructed for this
purpose in 1993. Individuals of this population have white
or pinkish white flowers with a green stem, whereas the
population at La Galapaguera, has pinkish white flowers
with a purple stem.
INTRODUCTION
There are 60 species of the genus Calandrinia (family
Portulacaceae) in Australia and 40 species in the Ameri-
cas. Some are cultivated as ornamental plants because of
their fleshy leaves and attractive flowers. Polymorphic
species are found in the subgenera Baitaria, Cistanthe, and
Rumicastrum (Mabberley 1997). In Galápagos, Stewart
(1911) reported a Calandrinia for the first time from Sappho
Cove, on the central north coast of San Cristóbal Island.
Later, St. John (1937) noted differences between
Stewart’s collection and other species of Calandrinia, spe-
cifically C. splendens from Chile. He established that the
sepals, the number of stamens, and the seeds were differ-
ent, and he described it as a new species, C. galapagosa,
endemic to Galápagos. Later, Eliasson (1968) reported 20
bushes, which were non-reproductive and severely
grazed by feral goats, surviving only on inaccessible cliffs.
In 1977, H. Adsersen (pers. comm.) found some plants on
PHENOTYPIC VARIATION IN CALANDRINIA GALAPAGOSA
(PORTULACACEAE)
By: Patricia Jaramillo
lava at Bahía Rosa Blanca (non-reproductive specimens,
Charles Darwin Research Station Herbarium).
In 1993, Jacinto Gordillo (pers. comm.) reported a popu-
lation on Cerro Colorado at an altitude of 150 m on a red
clay soil. Ortiz (1994) noted the danger of extinction of this
species, mainly due to pressure by feral goats. This site
was therefore protected by a 300 m barbed wire fence
built in 1993. This fence was never entirely adequate and
deteriorated over the years, permitting access by goats
once more. It was therefore replaced by a chain-link fence
built in 1999 by the Charles Darwin Research Station and
Galápagos National Park Service. This exclosure protects
not only the largest Calandrinia population, but also a large
population of the threatened San Cristóbal endemic
Lecocarpus darwinii.
Arsiniegas (1996) reported a new Calandrinia popula-
tion in four small cones to the southwest of the cone “Media
Luna” and in two larger cones located southeast of the
cones “Calzoncillo” and “Pan de Azúcar” in the eastern
part of the island in the section called La Galapaguera.
These individuals are protected from the donkeys and
feral goats that exist in the area due to their location on the
vertical walls of the cones. In 1999, Alan Tye and Patricia
Jaramillo (pers. obs.) found three individuals of this spe-
cies at a new location at Bahía Rosa Blanca.
In this study I report differences in the color of the
leaves and flowers between individuals found at Cerro
Colorado and La Galapaguera.
LITERATURE CITED
Beesley, P. L., G. J. B. Ross, and A. Wells. 1998. Mollusca: the
southern synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Volume 5. CSIRO
Publishing, Melbourne. 1234 pp.
Bullock, R. 1988. The genus Chiton in the new world
(Polyplacophora: Chitonidae). Veliger 31: 141-191.
Ferreira, A. J. and G. Ferreira. 1977. Chiton fauna of the
Galápagos Islands. Veliger 20: 82-97, 4 pp.
Finet, Y. 1994. The marine mollusks of the Galápagos Islands:
a documented faunal list. Museum d’Histoire Naturelle de
Genéve, Switzerland. 180 pp.
Salguero, N. and A. Carvajal. 1989. Estudio poblacional de
quitones en Bahía Academy y Punta Núñez. Thesis. Colegio
Nacional Galápagos, Puerto Ayora. 43 pp.
Tirado, N. 1996. Evaluación sobre el nivel de uso y
comercialización de los chitones. Thesis. Colegio Nacional
Galápagos Puerto Ayora. 43pp.
Walsh, F. 1993. Biological monitoring of Academy Bay sea-
shores 1988-1991. Report Charles Darwin Research Station.
45 pp.
A. Herrera, Charles Darwin Research Station, Puerto
Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador E-mail:
adelaidaherrera@hotmail.com.  R.H. Bustamante, Tropi-
cal and Pelagic Ecosystems Program, CSIRO Marine
Research, Cleveland 4163, Queensland, Australia  E-mail:
Rodrigo.Bustamante@marine.csiro.au.  S.A. Shepherd,
South Australian Research and Development Institute,
PO Box 120, Henley Beach, 5022, South Australia  E-mail:
sheperd.scoresby@saugov.sa.gov.au
December 2003 NOTICIAS DE GALÁPAGOS 29
MORPHOLOGY
Most observers have reported pink-white flowers and
green leaves (Stewart 1911, St. John 1937, Eliasson 1968,
Wiggins & Porter 1971). More recently, variably colored
leaves (Arsiniegas 1996) or slightly purple leaves, or white
flowers (Jaramillo 1998) have also been noted.
At Cerro Colorado, Jaramillo (1998) found plants with
white flowers that were otherwise identical to the pink
flowered plants at the same site, thus confirming that
variation exists at this site. J. Sotomayor collected some
seeds of this species from Cerro Colorado and M. Arsiniegas
from La Galapaguera. Sotomayor germinated them at the
Charles Darwin Research Station facility in San Cristóbal.
The seeds were germinated with the same substrate at an
altitude of 20 m above sea level. The color of the flowers
and leaves was different in the two cases: flowers from La
Galapaguera were purple and leaves were slightly pur-
plish, whereas flowers from Cerro Colorado were white
and the leaves were green. Presumably samples from
plants with pink flowers from this site would have pro-
duced pink flowers.
Different populations of Calandrinia galapagosa thus seem
to differ phenotypically, and there is also variation within
the Cerro Colorado population. More studies are neces-
sary in order to explain the taxonomic and genetic status
of the different forms.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to express my deep gratitude to Jorge Sotomayor
for his help and information and  to Mark Gardener, Alan
Tye, Lázaro Roque and Washington Tapia for checking
the article; to Adolfo Verdugo for the field work. I grate-
fully acknowledge Gayle Davis for her help in the
bibliography and text review.
LITERATURE CITED
Arsiniegas, M. 1996. Caracterización, Evaluación y
Conservación de Cuatro Especies de Plantas Endémicas
que se hallan en peligro de extinción en las Islas Galápagos:
Calandrinia galapagosa, Lecocarpus darwinii, Scalesia helleri y
Scalesia retroflexa. Tesis de Ingeniero Forestal. Universidad
Técnica “Luis Vargas Torres”. Esmeraldas. pp. 1-45.
Eliasson, U. 1968. Studies in Galápagos Plants. VI. On the
Identity of Calandrinia galapagosa St. John. Svensk Botanisk
Tidskrift 62: 365-368.
Jaramillo, P. 1998. Distribución Espacial de la Vegetación
Vascular y Dispersión de Especies Introducidas en Sitios
de Actividad Humana en el Parque Nacional Galápagos.
Tesis de Doctorado en Biología. Universidad Central del
Ecuador. pp. 1-117.
Mabberley, D. J. 1997. The Plant Book. Second edition. Cam-
bridge University Press.
Ortiz, E. 1994. Determinación de Estado de Amenaza Actual
de Calandrinia galapagosa y Lecocarpus darwinii. Tesis de
Licenciatura, Univ. Central del Ecuador, Quito: 1-72.
St. John, H. 1937. A New Calandrinia From the Galápagos
Islands. Amer. Jour. Bot., Vol. 24 :95.
Stewart, A. 1911. A Botanical Survey of the Galápagos Islands.
Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences to the
Galápagos Islands 1905-1906. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 1: 7-
288.
Wiggins, I. L. and D. M. Porter. 1971. Flora of the Galápagos
Islands. Stanford University Press, Stanford. pp. 1 – 998.
Patricia Jaramillo, Department of Botany, Charles Dar-
win Research Station, Galápagos, Ecuador E-mail:
pattyj@fcdarwin.org.ec
Calandrinia galapagosa San Cristóbal Island.


Phenotypic variation in Calandrinia galapagosa (Portulacaceae)

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Phenotypic variation in Calandrinia galapagosa (Portulacaceae)

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