Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Polygonum galapagense
Galapagos knotweed
12dm tall and the stems are 4-6mm thick when dried. There are fruits like lentils that range in color from brown to black and are smooth and shiny. The fruit does not contain bristles. (Wiggins and Porter 1971)
It is endemic and found in damp areas.
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Plantae
Phylum
Magnoliophyta
Class
Magnoliopsida (= Dicotyledoneae)
Order
Polygonales
Family
Polygonaceae
Genus
Polygonum
Species
galapagense
Taxon category: Accepted
Origin: Endemic
Distribution: Restricted to the Highlands of Isabela (in the volcano Sierra Negra), Santa Cruz, and San Cristobal. It is common locally but the habitat is very restricted.
- Christophersen, E. (1932) A Collection of Plants from the Galápagos Islands. Nyt Mag. Naturvidenskaberne 70: 67-95.
- Itow, S. (1997) List of Plant Specimens collected in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. Bulletin of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Nagasaki University, Natural Science, 38 (1): 53-144.
- Jørgensen, P.M. León-Yánez, S. (eds.) (1999) Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Ecuador. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 75. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, 1181 pp.
- Lawesson, J.E. Adsersen, H. & Bentley, P. (1987) An updated and annotated check list of the vascular plants of the Galapagos islands. Rept. Bot. Inst., Univ. Aarhus 16: 1-74.
- Porter, D.M. (1983) Vascular Plants of the Galapagos: Origins and Dispersal. In: Bowman, R.I., Berson, M. & Leviton, A.E. (eds.): Patterns of evolution in Galápagos organisms. Pacific Division, AAAS, San Francisco, California, p. 33-96.
- Robinson, B.L. (1902) Flora of the Galapagos Islands. Papers from the Hopkins-Stanford Expedition to the Galapgaos Islands. Proc. Amer. Acad. 38(4): 78-270.
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Missouri Botanical Garden (eds.) (2013) The Plant List, Version 1.1. Published on the Internet; http://www.theplantlist.org/ (accessed 1st January).
- Stewart, A. (1911) A botanical survey of the Galápagos Islands. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 4th Series, 1: 7-288.
- Tropicos.org. (2017) Database of Missouri Botanical Garden. Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. 06 Oct 2017 <http://www.tropicos.org
- Valencia, R. Pitman, N., León-Yánez, S. & Jørgensen, P.M. (2000) Libro Rojo de las Plantas Endémicas del Ecuador. Herbario QCA, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Ecuador 2000 i–iv, 1–489.
- Wiggins, I.L. Porter, D.M. (1971) Flora of the Galapagos Islands Standford University Press, Stanford.
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Polygonum galapagense", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=680. Accessed 30 October 2026.