Caribbean Flora

Bromeliad seeds dispersing with the wind on the Sandy Cruz trail on the island of Saba in the Dutch Caribbean.

Flamboyant tree (Delonix Regia) on the Fort Bay road on Saba in the Dutch Caribbean. It is locally known as July Tree, because it usually blooms during that month

Giant Bell (Hillia parasitica) is a rare flowering plant in the family Rubicae. It is indigenous to the tropical Americas named by Nicolaus Jacquin in 1760. It was named for the English botanist John Hill (1716-1775). You’ll find this viny shrub, often epiphytic or on rocks, of semi-open spots near the summit of Mount Scenery and in semi-open spots at all level of the rainforest.

Rare Philippine Ground Orchid (Spathoglottis plicata) found on top of Mt. Scenery on November 25th, 2020. The image has been assembled using a technique called focus stacking, because it is impossible to get all parts of the orchid into focus at once with a macro lens. Hence, I used many photos of the different flower parts and blended them together to get this result.

Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia littoralis), commonly called calico flower, is a tropical twining evergreen vine that produces unusual flowers, each of which resembles a dutchman’s pipe suspended on a thin stalk. It is native to Brazil, but has naturalized on some islands in the Caribbean. On Saba it can be found near the Medical School in The Bottom and on Troy HIll.

Plants produce slender stems clad with alternate, simple, heart- or kidney-shaped, glossy light green leaves that are gray-green beneath. Leaves are malodorous when bruised. Each flower is shaped like a curved pipe, hence the common name. Flower color is creamy white densely mottled with deep purple-brown. Vines primarily bloom in summer and fall, but in warm climates are free flowering. Flowers are pollinated by flies.

Genus name comes from the Greek words aristos meaning best and locheia meaning childbirth or delivery in reference to the fact that plants of some species within this genus have a flower structure which more closely resembles a human fetus in the womb than a pipe, and served in the past as the source of ancient plant preparations used for treatment of pain and infections incident to childbirth.

Source: Missouri Boatanical Garden