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5 plants worth knowing

Trinidad & Tobago

Trinidad was still joined to the mainland at the end of the last glaciation, so its flora – more than 2,000 species of flowering plants – is more South American than Antillean. Humid forests cover the Northern Range and Tobago, where the Main Ridge forest has been protected since 1776, while the lowlands are home to the Nariva Swamp, the Caroni mangroves, cocoa plantations and sugarcane fields.

Hover over a plant to see on the map where it grows.

where it grows

  1. Chaconia 1

    tree · National flower of Trinidad and Tobago

    Chaconia

    Warszewiczia coccinea

    The national flower, with flame-red bracts – its genus was named in honour of the Polish botanist Józef Warszewicz.
  2. Cacao 2

    crop

    Cacao

    Theobroma cacao

    Trinidad was the birthplace of Trinitario – a cacao hybrid that today accounts for a large share of the world’s finest chocolate.
  3. Mountain immortelle 3

    tree

    Mountain immortelle

    Erythrina poeppigiana

    Between January and March Trinidad’s hills turn orange with flowering immortelles, once planted to shelter cacao trees.
  4. Habanero pepper 4

    crop

    Habanero pepper

    Capsicum chinense

    Trinidad’s Moruga Scorpion was named the world’s hottest chilli in 2012 – the local cuisine is unthinkable without “pepper sauce”.
  5. Moriche palm 5

    palm

    Moriche palm

    Mauritia flexuosa

    In Trinidad this South American swamp palm forms groves in the Nariva Swamp – where blue-and-yellow macaws have been brought back.