Never, in more than 50 years here in Bermuda have I seen poincianas putting on such a magnificent display all over the Island as they are doing this year.
Writing on Bernews, Jeff Sousa says, “Our vegetation hasn’t looked this magnificent in four years. Ever since we received back to back hurricanes with Hurricane Fay hitting us on October 12th, 2014, and while still cleaning up from that storm, we were hit by Hurricane Gonzalo on October 17th and 18th.
These storms caused significant vegetative damage along the lines of what we saw with Hurricane Emily on September 25th, 1987 and Hurricane Fabian on September 5th, 2003. So in these four years, we have had some close calls, but nothing substantial, allowing our trees to take on some growth.
Many don’t know, but all this colour we see driving around our Island, is all given by introduced species to the Island with the magnificent Royal Poinciana being the most prominent. The Royal Poinciana [Delonix Regia] is originally from Tropical Africa, Madagascar, and India.
It was introduced to Bermuda from the West Indies though, in about 1870. The tree can be seen throughout Bermuda as it makes an excellent shade tree and boasts a brilliant display of orange [there’s a lovely one at the Aquarium] to a very deep red.”
You can read Jeff’s article on Bernews at http://bernews.com/2018/06/photos-spectacular-colours-of-summer-flowers/
Bernews has also published a series of superb photos taken around the Island and I wondered how many of our ExPo members, both local and overseas, can identify the locations where these photos were taken, including the one above.
With that in mind I’ve taken the following series of photos myself and have tried to include identifiable landmarks in each photo. I wonder if you can collectively pick out each location and add your description in the comments section below this article.
There are two roads close to Prospect that are a mass of colour at the moment with poinciana blossoms. Can anyone hazard a guess as to which two roads these might be?
