Avocado
Number of times mentioned: 3
Latin name: Persea americana
Region of origin: Southern Mexico, Mexico, Central America, South America
Quotations:
"Look, carry for him these two avocados and this half a dozen eggs to build up his strength." (25)
"LUNCH: / Fish or Meat 4 ounces / Rice / Provisions / Salad / Avocado / Fruit" (32)
"The night she thought would be her last in Alford George's bed, Florence poured avocado oil in the palms of her hands and massaged his naked body [...]." (120
Botanical reference: Julia Morton, “Avocado,” accessed June 26, 2021, https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/avocado_ars.html.
Bois canot
Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Schefflera morototoni
Region of origin: Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands (St. John, St. Thomas, Tortola), Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe), Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Central America, and South America
Quotations:
"One day he arrived on the ground with his own wickets, a bat he had himself fashioned out of the root of a bois canot tree, one of his taped and polished tennis balls." (18)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 68–69, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Calabash tree
Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Crescentia cujete
Region of origin: Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and South America
Quotations:
"‘How you know to come to me now?’ asked Mother Ethel, pushing herself up from the bench facing the shrine in the yard, with the calabash tree and the pomegranate tree with the iron for Ogun and the conch shell for Yemanja and the sugarcane plant, for Damballah, the snake." (14)
"Outside the yard was planted with bougainvillea trees and red hibiscus fencing, orchids were growing on tree stumps, ixora plants, a calabash tree and two coconut trees near enough to string a hammock in between, guava tree near the latrine and some julie mango trees." (70)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 148, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Cork
Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Ochroma pyramidale
Region of origin:
Quotations:
"They showed us the ships that come back with another load of saltfish and salt pork and smoke herring and tasso and salt: with khaki and cotton cloth and cork hats and hoes and cutlass and soft candle and rope." (75)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 515, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Maize (also known as corn)
Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Zea mays
Region of origin: Mexico and Guatemala
Quotations:
| "[...] Jo-Jo's
great- grandfather, Guinea John, with his black jacket on and a price of two
hundred pounds sterling on his head, made his way to the East Coast, mounted
the cliff at Manzanilla, put two corn cobs under his armpits and flew away to
Africa [...]." (4) |
| "She saw
clumps of it in Deep Ravine, overpowering a field of grapefruit trees,
covering an old wooden house in Hibiscus and weighing down a field of dried
corn and pigeon peas, and she kept looking to see when it would reach the
streets of Cunaripo, giving up with a smile the idea of Bango ever plastering
the walls of the kitchen." (71) |
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 765, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Croton
Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Croton trinitatis
Region of origin: Trinidad, Mexico, Central America, South America
Quotations:
| "He got the
newspapers to come and there was a picture of him in the newspapers kneeling
with the mothers of the Church, surrounded by lighted candles and flowers
without thorns, marigold and croton and ginger lilies and chaconia and
fern." (65) |
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 329, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Guava
Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Psidium guajava
Region of origin: West Indies, United States, Mexico, Central America, South America
Quotations:
| "Outside the
yard was planted with bougainvillea trees and red hibiscus fencing, orchids
were growing on tree stumps, ixora plants, a calabash tree and two coconut
trees near enough to string a hammock in between, guava tree near the latrine
and some julie mango trees." (70) |
| "And soon in
front his store were people selling on payday weekends, guava jams, tamarind
balls, strainers for rice, rolling-pins, mortars, coal-pots, khaki pants and
khaki shirts." (109) |
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 605-606, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Samaan
Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Samanea saman
Region of origin: Mexico, Central America, and South America
Quotations:
| "Next morning
Alford arrived under the samaan tree in the front of the offices of the
Ministry of Education [...]." (42) |
| "That night he
left the wake with her and they walked into Port-of-Spain to Brunswick
Square, there under the samaan trees [...]." (86) |
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 457, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
