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East End
The East End is comprised mostly of high hills covered with a dry forest of thorn scrub and many species of cacti and shrub vegetation, sucha as the Turk's Cap or barrel cactus and the tall, colunmar organ pipe cactus. Thicket vegetation, well developed on this part of the island, consists of the crotons, lantana, wild cotton, tan tan and acacia "casha bush". A few trees such as sugar apple, logwood, and the calabash, with its thick, stiff and wide branches and gourd-like fruits, are found here. These hills are not quite as high as in the west and the valley are not so sharply incised.
Mid-Island
Along the Queen Mary Highway segment of the trail you will pass through avenues of mahogany trees planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. The former cane fields bordering the Trail are alive with tamarind, tibet, saman, bamboo, mango, palm, flamboyant, and a host of other tropical trees. One of our most interesting trees is the baobab, an African S=spirit tree brought by the slaves. St. Croix has the highest concentration of baobab trees in the Caribbean.
West End
The island's tropical moist forest dominates the northwest hills. The trees include the silk cotton with its soft, silky, down seeds called kapok; hog plum with its yellow edible fruit, sandbox with its thorn covered trunks (also called monkey-no-climb); and fig.
Coastline
St. Croix's sheltered coasts harbor the environmentally important white, black, and red mangroves. The sandy seashores are home to fleshy plants such as sea purslane and beach bean. The round-leaved seagrape, the extremely toxic manchineel tree, and the coconut palm are found in exposed as well as protected coastal areas. |
