Native plants help keep Cayman unique

Wash wood plants sprout from the rocks and help to
make the Cayman Islands coastline one of the most
beautiful in the world

Tuesday,  April 26, 2005

Ever since the Cayman Islands were settled, native plants have been used for food, shelter, clothing, healing, everyday utility, boat-building, livelihood and export. 

Besides crystal-clear waters and abundant marine life, these Islands host a fascinating world of little-known plants and the creatures that provide food and shelter for - birds, bats, butterflies, dragonflies, reptiles and amphibians and crabs.

About 700 plants have been recorded growing in the wild, most are native but some are naturalized. Ironwood, Silver Thatch, several species of Orchid and a giant Bromeliad are among the twenty-five endemic plants, found here and nowhere else in the world.

To preserve Cayman’s native creatures, the wild plants they depend upon for food and shelter need to be preserved.

There are, for example, about 55 species of butterflies native to the Cayman Islands, which lay their eggs on specific plants that their caterpillars will eat when they hatch. If a caterpillar is moved to a plant that isn’t its host it will die. 

Some birds also eat nectar from flowers, some eat seeds and fruits, others caterpillars and butterflies, or other insects and their larvae. Some even eat other birds, rats mice or fish.

Cayman’s most interesting and endangered native trees grow in dry rocky forests and woodlands. Many are slow-growing, tall and slender, reaching down through the rock for water and nutrients, and up for the light. 

In amongst them grow many little-known shrubs which survived Hurricane Ivan well, because they were anchored in solid rock. 

They were stripped of their leaves, branches snapped off, but new leaves are growing back. 

Cayman’s original growth forests are irreplaceable - historical and cultural treasures, a unique combination of trees such as Silver Thatch, Broadleaf, Candlewood, Wash Wood, Smoke Wood, Sweetwood, Snake Wood, Pickle Wood, Fiddlewood, Fustic, Pepper Cinnamon, Wild Cinnamon, Spanish Elm, Cedar, Mahogany, Little-Leaf Ironwood, Bitter Plum, Pompero, Wild Fig, Cherry, Headache Bush, and Shake Hand trees. Because of the terrain, the history of Cayman is significantly different from the history of the rest of the West Indies. A Cayman Islands native species is one that occurs naturally in the Cayman Islands without direct or indirect human actions. Some plants and animals are native to only one or two of the three Cayman Islands.

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