Plants
INDEX
WHAT ARE PLANTS?
WHERE DID PLANTS COME FROM?
PLANTS, MAN AND CONSERVATION
PLANTS OF THE BAHAMAS
PLANTS BROUGHT TO THE BAHAMAS BY PEOPLE
WHAT ARE PLANTS?
Plants are a major group of living things, including familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, and ferns. Generally speaking, plants have cells that are encased in a cell wall, they lack the power of locomotion and they use sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce sugars to make energy. There are about 300,000 living species of plants today, which are immensely diverse in appearance, how they grow and where they grow.
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WHERE DID PLANTS COME FROM?
The first plants appeared on this planet as microscopic, single-celled organisms floating in the world’s oceans at least 3.5 billion years ago. They did not colonize land until about 500 million years ago. It is thought that the transition to land took place in fresh water ponds by green algae. The first land plants were non vascular (lacking a phloem and xylem) and so they were small plants. The first vascular plants appeared about 430 million years ago and gave rise to larger plants such as the ferns, conifers and eventually the flowering plants and the plant world as we know it today.
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PLANTS, MAN AND CONSERVATION
Plants do more for people than we realize. Not only do plants give us joy with their spectacular beauty and smells, but they provide the earth with the oxygen that we need to breathe. Plants have played a major role in feeding mankind throughout our entire history and today, a vast variety of plants are farmed to feed our ever-growing appetites for a healthy and varied diet. Plants not only feed people but they are at the bottom of nearly every food chain on this planet. Therefore, every animal is just as dependent upon plants.
Plants play a major role culturally too. Plants have been used for medicinal purposes and have had a symbolic importance in many cultures. For example, the native Indians of the Caribbean region used the pineapple as a sign of welcome and would place a pineapple outside their door to welcome visitors. The colonialists embraced this symbolism and the pineapple image is still used to decorate the outside of many homes today.
Unfortunately, people are destroying the natural forests of the world. They are being cut down to provide the world with the hardwood it demands or the land is turned into farmland or housing. Many native plants around the world are also disappearing from the new competition that they face from the new plants that are introduced to those areas. This is also true in the Bahamas. When Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Bahamas he described the forests being very large. Unfortunately, nearly all of that original forest was cut down and for 400 years the Bahamian forests were being exploited for their hard wood, dyes and aromatics to be sold overseas. Today, it is difficult to find a forest in the Bahamas that is more than 100 years old.
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PLANTS OF THE BAHAMAS
The Bahamas has over 1,400 different plant species, with some areas holding over 100 different species in a square mile. Compared to the rest of the sub-tropical world, this is a very small number. However, what the Bahamas lacks in diversity, its makes up for in uniqueness. The families of native plants found in the Bahamian islands mostly originate from Central and South America, as do the entire West Indian flora. When plants first colonized the Bahamas, the sea levels were much lower than they are today and so many plants would have easily made their journey to the Bahamas. However, when the sea levels began to rise at the end of the Pleistocene, only those species that were adapted to salt, wind, sun and thin, poor soil survived, to become the flora of the Bahamas today.
The 700 islands of the Bahamas are spread over a large distance: nearly 700 miles! Therefore, the islands in the North are considerably different to the ones in the South. The Northern islands receive a lot more rainfall and the temperatures produce a mild, subtropical climate. Whereas in the South, it is much more hot and dry. This variation in climate has produced a variation in forest habitats. The pine forests are mostly found in the Northern islands (Grand Bahama, Andros, Abaco and New Providence). Where as Coppice forests (broad leaved forests) are found throughout the Bahamas.
Like most island habitats, the Bahamas has a large number of plants that are only found in the Bahamas and nowhere else, referred to as endemic species. One third of these endemics are also only found on one island, Inagua.
Below is a list of some native plants in the Bahamas that can be found in Ardastra Gardens. Click on the links for more information on them.
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PLANTS BROUGHT TO THE BAHAMAS BY PEOPLE
Numerous people have settled on the Bahamas since Columbus' arrival and with them they brought quite an array of plants from around the world. Some of these plants have been in the Bahamas for hundreds of years now and as a result, many Bahamian’s (particularly on New Providence) are confused as to what plants are native (pre-Columbus) to the Bahamas.
Some of the plants that were brought to the Bahamas have done so well that they are now out-growing the Bahamian plants and sadly, many uniquely Bahamian plants will most likely become extinct as a result.
Below is a list of the most common plants that were brought to these islands, most of which can be found in Ardastra. Click on the links to obtain more information about them.
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