June 15th, 2009

Yes, it was a flower showcase, but there weren’t any awards for the “best flower” or anything like that. Today, a primary school teacher came to the island with the intention of learning about many of the plants that occured naturally on Ambergris Cay and were indigenous to TCI. Steve McFarlane and I took her on a tour. First, we searched for some Frangipani, which was fruiting but not plentifully. Then, we searched for the very rare and only-appearing-on-TCI Turks Island Heather, which the teacher happily took pictures of. Surrounding it was a large patch of Sea Purslane, which we fed to the teacher and watched her face as she took her first salty mouthful. Following this, we went hunting for Monkey Fiddle, which is a very cool leafless plant. Steve and I wished we’d brought a container because the ripe seds were plentiful and it is a plant that is hard to asexually propagate (for information on that, see “Back at the nursery…”).When we finally finished, all I could think of was how much no-itch cream I was going to have to put on to stop me from scratching off all of the mosquito bites I’d gotten.

Filed under: Shelley |