Jamaican Pictures
Beautiful Trees

The (silk) cotton tree features heavily in our folklore. It grows to huge proportions over hundreds of years, andwas formerly used to make canoes. It is a symbol of long life and continuity, and duppies (spirits) are said to live at its roots.

The poui is a breathtaking tree, and is used to tell students that it's time to start studying for final summer exams. If it's in itssecond flowering, you're way behind, so hit those books!

We love our 'food' trees especially. Breadfruit and mango save us a lot of grocery money. Many small shops andsupermarkets report lower sales when it's mango time.

The guango is a large, wide spreading tree, beautifully proportioned. The black pods are sticky and sweet,caramel colured on the inside.Excellent cattle food, especially in dry weather. It folds its leaves at night and when it's cloudy,causing moisture to collect under it. This often makes the grass under a guango tree greener than the grassaround it.

Take a look at these trees from my collection of Jamaican pictures. You can be on the lookout for them in your travels around the island. Most of these photos were taken in St. Elizabeth.

Click on the thumbnail photos to enlarge.

Poui	Common Mango	Poinciana
Lignum Vitae Tree, which bears the National Flower of Jamaica	Guango	Bottlebrush Tree - the hummingbird's gourmet restaurant!
Breadfruit Tree	Maypole Tree	Silk Cotton Tree at Hampton School
Bauhinia a.k.a Poor Man's Orchid, pink variety.	Bird Cherry Tree - very stainy, but the birds love it	Look, it's a Red Bull Tree! Only in Jamaica

The "Red Bull" tree is a new phenomenon. The one in the picture is the trendsetter, on the road near Porus in Manchester. Others have been seen since, but poor imitations!

To see more of Jamaican nature, click here for pictures on the Black River and pictures of Jamaican birds and animals and also Jamaican flowers.

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