Only a few botanists have ever gone beyond Santiago.We were fortunate enough to be able to reach Maisi.
In Maisi, everyone complains of the "seca" (drought) which raises the "polvo" (coral dust). Strange country, strange vegetation: tortured, shaped by the wind and drought over countless centuries. Here we have perfect examples of three ecological responses, three means of defence of a florule exposed to violent mechanical action.
The flora closest to the sea is mainly microphyllus and sclerophyllus shrubs, most of them bent by the wind or battered to the ground...
UdeM: E0118Album3Erythroxylon
... contrasting markedly, in one direction, with the tall silhouettes of the Cactaceae that are impervious to the wind...
Maisi lighthouse with cacti.
UdeM: E01182FP00291
UdeM: E0118Album3Coccothrinax
... and, in the other, with the long narrow stipes of an endemic Palm, Coccothrinax Alexandri, with a meagre bouquet of leaves 20 or 30 metres up swaying in the wind. Like the fabled Reed, it bends but does not break.
Under the Cuban Sun with Marie-Victorin [Jardin botanique de Montréal]
Last Update: 2014-06-18
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Ville de Montréal
