Bermuda Flora Letterbox Hybrid

Lock n Lock Container

Take a load off your feet for a few minutes and ENJOY the scenery. To get to the cache , Start walking towards Shelly Bay about 100 - 125 paces. Look for the letters PWD and you will be at the cache..

There is a stamp in the letterbox for those of you that wish to stamp their book. Of course, the stamp needs to remain with the letterbox.

Bermuda Flora:

As is not surprising for such a small island, there is very little native or endemic vegetation on Bermuda. 15-17 species are considered to be endemic, that is, they grow nowhere else. 150-165 species are considered native, that is, they came to Bermuda by natural (non-human) means, by water, winds, birds etc. Everything else was introduced by people and has either become naturalized and living on its own or exists as part of and dependent upon a horticultural situation. Nathaniel Lord Britton's Flora of Bermuda, published in 1904, listed 61 endemic species and an additional 95 species for a total of 156 considered to be native.

Since Bermuda is for all intents and purposes a warm tropical island, and is blessed botanically speaking by a combination of lots of sunlight, high humidity and ample rainfall, plants from tropical, subtropical and warm temperate areas all over the world have been brought here and thrive here. In addition to protected areas such as Nonsuch Island, Devonshire Marsh, Spittal and Walsingham Ponds, Paget Marsh and Nature Preserve, Warwick Pond and other parks and preserves, there are numerous gardens all over the island from which many exotic species have escaped to live life on their own. In point of fact, Bermuda is like one large botanical garden twenty miles long showcasing many hundreds of species from other parts of the world.

The island of Bermuda was originally covered in the main with dense forests of Bermuda cedar (Juniperus bermudiana), and this remained the dominant tree until 1946 when two scale insects were accidentally introduced. Over the next five years 95% of Bermuda's cedars were killed, by some counts approximately eight million trees. Casuarinas, tamarisks and pines were then brought in to create windbreaks, but today the Bermuda cedar is making a good comeback and has regained approximately 10% of its original population. The Bermuda palmetto (Sabal bermudana), Bermuda's only native palm, was another endemic species that undoubtedly fringed the shoreline when the first humans arrived, along with the most northerly mangrove forests in the Atlantic. Regrettably however many of the other endemic species are gone forever. Other common native though non-endemic trees in the pre-settlement Bermuda flora in addition to the red and black mangrove (Rhizophora mangle and Avicennia germinans) were the yellow-wood (Zanthoxylum flavum), buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus) and southern hackberry (Celtis laevigata), all of which survive. The pressures of human habitation over four hundred years and the introduction of many alien species and damaging pests have almost irretrievably affected the ecosystem, and future sea level rise as a consequence of global warming will only add to this.

Endemic species:

Adiantum bellum (Bermuda maidenhair fern)
Ascyrum hypericoides [Hypericum hypericoides] (St. Andrew's cross) 
Campylopus bermudiana (Bermuda campylopus) [moss]
Carex bermudiana (Bermuda sedge)
Chiococca bermudiana (Bermuda snowberry)
Ctenitis sloanii (Bermuda cave fern) 
Diplazium laffanianum (Governor Laffan's fern)
Elaeodendron laneanum (Bermuda olivewood)
Goniopteris [Dryopteris] bermudiana (Bermuda shield fern)
Eleocharis bermudiana (Bermuda spike rush) [may be extinct]
Erigeron darrellianus (Darrell's fleabane) 
Juniperus bermudiana (Bermuda cedar)
Peperomia septentrionalis (Wild Bermuda pepper)
Phaseolus lignosus (Bermuda bean)
Sabal bermudana (Bermuda palmetto)
Sisyrinchium bermudiana (Bermudiana)
Trichostomum bermudanum (Bermuda trichostomum) [moss] 

There is a stamp in the letterbox for those of you that wish to stamp their book. Of course, the stamp needs to remain with the letterbox.