Jamaican Flowering Plants

Lignum Vitae

• The lignum vitae, Latin for "wood of life," is Jamaica's national flower, first encountered by Christopher Columbus. This ornamental plant produces beautiful blue flowers and edible orange fruit. Lignum vitae is extremely useful, and its bark, fruit, leaves, blossoms and gum all have been used in alternative medicine. In fact Europeans once used the gum extract as a cure for syphilis and gout. Lignum vitae's wood is also used to make furniture, mallets, pulleys and mortars. This plant grows best in dry woodland, particularly along the southern coastline of Jamaica.

Broughtonia Negrilensis

• This lovely orchid species is native to the Negril Hill area of Jamaica. Though the broughtonia negrilensis will flower periodically throughout the year, it blooms the heaviest during fall, winter and spring. This flower features delicate hanging petals in varying shades of white, pink, magenta and violet. These petals are usually between two and three inches long, and it forms 1- to 2-foot-long sprays of clustered flowers. Broughtonia negrilensis is relatively easy to grow but needs at least 50 percent, humidity, water with a pH of 7.5 or lower and a warm, humid climate with plenty of sun. Avoid over-watering, as this can cause root rot.

Rosella

• Native to tropical Africa, the rosella or Jamaican sorrel has found a new home in Jamaica. This plant produces yellow hibiscus-like flowers, reddish purple petioles or leaf stems, and dark green leaves. Rosella grows to an average height of between four and seven feet. The plant has many uses, and you can even make juices, jams, wine and pies from its calyces, which you should harvest 10 days after the first flowers appear in October. Roselle needs full sunlight and will grow in USDA Hardiness Zones 8 to 11.