T & T Part 4: The Tremendous Trees

One of the things I love about traveling is seeing new things.  I was expecting to see lots of new birds in Trinidad and Tobago, and flowers, too.  Also butterflies.  But, one thing I did not give a thought to were trees.  I should have, of course.  After all, it IS the rain forest, and forests are made up of trees.  

Another thing about traveling and seeing new things is that you don't know much about the things you see.  Of course, it's very nice when you have a guide who tells you what you are seeing.  Mukesh identified birds for us, which I marked down frequently so I wouldn't forget.  (And if I did forget, I'd just asked him and he'd tell me again!) He also was quite knowledgeable about everything else we saw, too... from insects to flowers to trees.  Unfortunately, I didn't always make good notes.   So I'm slightly hesitant to write about things I don't know much about!  I'm no expert on our trees at home, let alone the new ones I saw on our trip.  However, my love for the beauty of the trees we saw in Trinidad won out over my reluctance.

Trees seem to be somewhat overlooked by other people, too.  Notice how this sign lists the number of mammals, birds, reptiles, and even fish but only says about the trees that they are "evergreen seasonal".  It was in the Bush Bush that I realized the trees were very special.  Mukesh told us there was a big tree back in the trail aways that he thought we would like to see.  And, we did!  What a tree!

My notes say, "Sandbox Tree" hugest (big thorns)".  Wish I had written a little more.  I just know it was an amazing tree.  You can read about them here.

Looking up it doesn't seem that impressive, and it wasn't actually extremely tall because the top had broken off at some point.  But compare it to the size of the other trees nearby (which were large trees) and you can see how huge it is.

Then Mukesh said there was also another big tree not too far away.  Seriously, it was another amazing tree! 

Kids would love to play 'hide and seek' around here.

For this tree, my scanty notes say, "Ficus Fig (big, with bats)".  Yes, around the back of the tree were bats.

Pretty cool, huh?

Again, trusting my notes, they are a species of White-lined Bats (one of the kinds of mammals we saw, which included monkeys on this hike... more on them later!). Back to trees...

This one was my favorite.  It's called a Cannonball Tree.  What first drew me to it were the very unique flowers.

The neat flowers are only the beginning though.

The flowers are hanging around the trunk, and then there are the fruits (and why the tree gets its name).

You can see them in the photo above, and piles of them on the ground in the next one.

They are quite large!  Not a good idea to stand underneath for obvious reasons.  You can read an interesting article about Cannonball Trees here.  Oh, if you are wondering what I wrote in my notebook about them it was this: "Cannonball Tree (my favorite)."

There were lots of other neat things about trees in Trinidad.  Such as things that grew IN them.

And ON them.

Bread Nut Tree ("large leaves and spiky fruit")

Cashew nuts (no notes whatsoever!)

Ditto, no notes about the vines.

There were beautiful trees everywhere we went.  This was the scene from the veranda at Asa Wright Nature Centre.

Some of the trees were flowering, though the flowers don't show up very well in my photos.

There's a Yellow Poui tree blooming on the right.

On our walks around the grounds at Asa Wright, there were lots of other trees.

You probably noticed the photographer in the photo above, but did you see that he is in front of the veranda (which you can just make out in the upper left portion of the photo)?  That's because there are so many trees, right?!

We also enjoyed birding along the driveway, thanks to the beautiful trees.  Although, technically, those bamboo 'trees' are in the grass family.

We also enjoyed many tall trees and fruit trees (see those bananas?) along with mountain views on our rides with Mukesh.

If we are ever lucky enough to go to T & T again, I'd like to see more birds, but I'd also pay more attention to the trees! They really are incredible and worthy of our observation.