Plants of the Blue Mountains

Jamaica has one of the highest rates of plant endemism of any Caribbean island, and much of that diversity is concentrated in the Blue Mountains, from orchids and bromeliads in the cloud forest to the blue mahoe, Jamaica's national tree, lower down.

How many native and endemic plants does Jamaica have?

Jamaica is home to roughly 3,000 native species of flowering plants, of which more than 1,000 are found nowhere else in the world, and around 200 are orchids, according to Wikipedia's summary of the island's wildlife. A large share of that endemism is concentrated at higher elevation: the Blue Mountains' upper forest alone is credited with a roughly 50% rate of plant endemism and more than 500 recorded flowering plant species, figures given in Wikipedia's account of the range. The Blue Mountains cloud forest page covers the habitat that supports much of this diversity in more detail.

Orchids and bromeliads

Orchids are a substantial part of Jamaica's plant diversity, with roughly 200 species recorded on the island as a whole, many of them found at higher elevations where the Blue Mountains' constant mist keeps epiphytic species alive on tree trunks and branches rather than in soil. Tank bromeliads, which collect pools of water in their overlapping leaves, are a conspicuous feature of the cloud forest, growing alongside tree ferns, wild ginger and thick moss in the wettest, highest parts of the range, according to Wikipedia's description of the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountain yacca and other conifers

One of the more distinctive plants of the high Blue Mountains is Podocarpus urbanii, known locally as the Blue Mountain yacca, an endemic conifer characteristic of the stunted, wind-shaped elfin woodland found at the most exposed, highest elevations of the range, according to Wikipedia. Conifers of this kind are unusual in the Caribbean, and the species' restriction to Jamaica's highest ridges illustrates how localized much of the range's plant diversity is.

Is the blue mahoe really Jamaica's national tree?

Yes. Hibiscus elatus, the blue mahoe, is Jamaica's national tree, according to Wikipedia. It is not, however, an endemic found only on the island: its native range also takes in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, making it a Caribbean species rather than one unique to Jamaica. In the wild it favors wetter ground up to about 1,200 meters elevation, growing as a fast-colonizing pioneer on disturbed, open land and as an understory tree in secondary forest. Its wood, prized for cabinet-making and decorative turned objects and, historically, for tying cigar bundles, has also been used in fine furniture and in building the cuatro, a stringed instrument, according to Wikipedia. The tree has since been deliberately introduced and has naturalized well beyond its native range, including in Mexico, Peru, Brazil and southern Florida.

Invasive species in the Blue Mountains

Pittosporum undulatum, commonly called Australian cheesewood, is an introduced tree now established in the upper montane forest of the Blue Mountains, where it is outcompeting native canopy species, according to Wikipedia's account of the range. It is treated as one of the more significant threats to the native character of the cloud forest, a separate pressure from the habitat fragmentation caused by farming lower down the mountains, which is covered on the national park page.

Plants and Blue Mountain coffee country

Coffee itself is grown well below the richest cloud-forest plant communities, on the lower and middle slopes of the range, commonly quoted as roughly 3,000 to 5,500 feet. Farms and forest sit close together on the ground rather than overlapping, and the plant diversity described here is concentrated in the standing forest above and around the coffee belt rather than within cultivated fields themselves. For how that forest and the coffee below it relate, see shade trees on Blue Mountain coffee farms.

Where to see Blue Mountain plants

Holywell and the trails near Hardwar Gap offer accessible cloud forest close to Kingston, with tree ferns, orchids and epiphyte-covered trees visible along marked paths; see Holywell and Hardwar Gap for details. As with the range's wildlife, current trail conditions are best confirmed with the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust before a visit.