The National Herbarium is marking two centuries with a series of activities planned for this year. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has recently made it clear that the Double Chaconia (Warszewiczia coccinea var. David Auyoung) is the national flower and will be planted in all schools across the nation.
It is a shrub or small tree, whose habitat is Lower montane forest. It is a natural mutant discovered in Trinidad in 1957 and now exists only in cultivation. The parent plant found on the Blanchisseuse Road was destroyed with the widening of the road shortly after its discovery.
The National Herbarium will formally launch its 200th anniversary celebrations on May 22, 2018 with a tree-planting ceremony at the St. Augustine Campus where the collection is housed under the stewardship of curator, Yasmin Baksh-Comeau.
Among the activities planned is the collaboration with a re-afforestation project to take place in the hillside of Tunapuna, where 200 trees will be put to earth between Hillview College, the Biodiversity Society at The UWI and the Herbarium.
The trees will form part of the promotion of greening the urban landscaping as part of ‘our green heritage’ and to become a part of the Virtual Campus Arboretum on the website at http://sta.uwi.edu/herbarium/ as soon as it is launched. Look out for more on the celebratory activities in our next issue.
(Click Here) Photos courtesy the National Herbarium.
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