Seaside Morning Glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae)

I love Seaside Morning Glory for many reasons. Aside from the fact that it grows (thrives) on little to no soil (rock is just fine), and it does shrink back and die off during the dry season, but the minute rain comes along, oh my, the ground is transformed with a magnificent green carpet (it grows really quickly) interspersed with these lovely purple flowers. What can be better than that?!

Seaside Morning Glory grows on the beach as well as along cliff edges on the coastline, so salt and wind are no problem for this hardy plant. Anywhere from the south-east coast of Barbados, along the east coast and right up to the north of the island, you will see this growing. It is even used on beaches that have suffered erosion to help “hold” the sand.

To top it off, butterflies of all sizes and colours love Seaside Morning Glory. What’s not to like!

Silver Dollar

This shrub grows very easily and can be seen in gardens all over Barbados. I don’t know the Latin name for Silver Dollar (that’s what we call it), but it has a lovely grey-green leaf, very similar to that of Texas Sage, but much bigger, and it bears bunches of tiny little spherical pods, some of which are clearly shown in the photo.

Silver Dollar makes a great hedge or a stand alone ornamental shrub. It handles dry conditions well, requiring just a bit of watering to get it through the dry season. It also thrives along the windswept south and east coasts of Barbados, and can be found growing steps from the beach.

If left to run wild, Silver Dollar will become a more tree-sized plant, providing good shelter from the sun and wind.

Sea Grape (Coccoloba uvifera)

Sea Grape trees and shrubs grow wild all over Barbados, particularly along the coastline. They are easily recognisable because of the almost circular leaf. As the new leaves come out, they are a magnificent rust colour, as shown in one of the photographs, and as they age they change to a verdant green.

As the name implies, sea grapes bear a small delicious fruit, which turns purple as it ripens. The hard part is finding ripe ones to pick as birds, monkeys and other people all like them too. When I was a child, people would sell them on the beach for a few pennies - the leaf was twisted into a cone shape and filled with lushious ripe fruit. Failing that, we would climb the sand dunes to reach the trees ourselves and feast.

Sea Grape is a very hardy salt tolerant plant, most of the leaves will fall off during the dry season, and they will look quite bare and near death, but as soon as rain comes, these magnificent rusty coloured leaves appear which slowly turn green, and it becomes thick and lush, and quite spectacular.

Keep your eyes open as you explore the island’s beaches and coastline, and you are sure to come across some Sea Grape trees.

Texas Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens)

Texas Sage is not indigenous to Barbados, but it can be found thriving in gardens all over the island, and I could not resist including it here. Just one look at the photo will tell you why.

Texas Sage is a shrub with a tiny leaf that is more grey than green. It prefers somewhere that is sheltered from the wind, but gets good sunlight and rain. The one pictured here is in a garden that experiences high wind for most of the year, but the shrub itself is tucked behind a structure, so from mid-morning until late afternoon it is in the sun, it gets runoff from the roof when there is rain and is exposed to little wind. And it is just magnificent when covered in flowers, which usually appear after there has been some rain, seemingly overnight.

In the dry season, it does not need to be watered very often, just a little to keep going, but as soon as rain comes, it transforms to this magnificent purple and grey ball of colour that the bees and butterflies love. You cannot help but smile and feel better when face with a flowering Texas Sage.