Plant a tree. Populate your garden with endemics, natives that have evolved and exist only in Bermuda, among them the Bermuda Cedar, Bermuda Palmetto or Bermuda Olivewood.

What we plant adds to the envelope of air we breathe. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. They help cool the earth. Their canopies provide cover and shade. Their foliage screens against noise pollution, acts as wind buffer and affords privacy. Their roots prevent soil erosion.

Trees provide berries for food, nesting and landing sites and perches for wildlife. Birds, butterflies, tree frogs and chameleons alight, hop or crawl along their bark. Trees beautify your surrounds, give pleasure and afford relaxation in a green environment.

You can hang a hammock on a tree’s bough, have a picnic beneath its branches, pick its blossoms for your table, or watch the antics of the birds that colonise it.

According to the Department of Conservation Services’ Bermuda Plant Finder, indigenous and invasive plants, natives and endemics are the preferred plantings. They have been locally conditioned by evolution and better meet the challenges of a semi-tropical island. They are hardy, sun tolerant and more resistant to drought, salt and wind. Natives and endemics consume less water and offer relatively low maintenance.

In a work-in-progress, naturalist and conservationist David B Wingate added to that list that native and endemic trees offer in-scale maturity to the average building lot. The former Conservation Officer also noted their in general, year-round and after-storm leaf retention.

With a nod to the blight visited upon the Island’s cedar forests in the 1940s, Dr Wingate said: “Cedars are very viable now… Every one that you plant is likely going to survive and grow well.”

This is predicated upon the ‘pioneer tree’ thriving where nothing can overshade it.

“Cedar is now largely resistant to the scale, and invasive tree competitors are the only thing preventing it from making a complete comeback,” Dr. Wingate said.

Collections Officer at the Bermuda Aquarium’s Natural History Museum and author of Bermuda’s Flora, Volumes I and II, Lisa Greene said: “The choice of tree depends very much upon the size of the garden and the situation of the garden, such as whether it is exposed to salt-laden winds, has sandy soils, shallow soils or shaded conditions.”

She encourages the use of lesser-known natives, such as the elm-like Southern Hackberry and the Buttonwood.

“These two trees… don’t get as much promotion as the Bermuda Palmetto, Bermuda Cedar and Bermuda Olivewood and diversity in the ‘garden of Bermuda’ is good,” she said.

The Hackberry’s ‘positive attributes’, according to Ms Greene, include light, warmth and wind resistance through its deciduous branches in winter and berries, which attract Cardinals in summer.

The Buttonwood resists salt spray, can be pruned to an attractive hedge or, in a semi-sheltered area, be permitted to grow into a small tree. Doves are partial to its fruit.

Dr Wingate noted: “The Hackberry is a native tree. Its advantage is that it can grow tall… which gives variety to a garden.

“The Buttonwood I would recommend for coastal situations because it tends to sprawl. It grows more prostrate because it usually has to deal with strong winds on the coast.”

The Buttonwood, according to Dr Wingate, handles coastal salt spray better than the dense foliaged, storm resistant Olivewood. But if you want the Buttonwood to stand upright elsewhere, be prepared to constantly prune its side boughs.

Ms Greene also endorsed non-native species.

“Property owners should also consider plants that are not native or endemic, but that support Bermuda’s — and international — biodiversity,” she said.

That biodiversity, according to Ms Greene, includes both resident and migratory birds and insects.

Dr Wingate agreed.

“Most of our introduced plants on Bermuda are either benign or beneficial. The challenge is to know the ones that have proven to be problematical,” he said.

Poinciana, Hibiscus and Loquat fit the beneficial category for their fruit and flowers, while Chinese Fan Palm, Brazil Pepper and other invasives fit the problematical for their aggressive self-propagation. Such invasive trees tend to grow faster and to greater height, mature earlier and outcompete natives for space and light.

Ms Greene said: “Invasive plants should be avoided, removed or managed, depending on the situation.”

Dr Wingate said trees should be spaced according to spread, their mature height considered in placements adjacent to but not under overhead wires, and with roots well away from pits, tanks and the walls of a home. That means not less than 20 feet apart for a Cedar, eight to 10 feet for a Palmetto and 10 to 15 feet for an Olivewood; although you can group plant Palmettos on a boundary and Olivewoods, intended as a hedge, at eight-foot intervals.

He said: “The general advice is to strive for a compatible balance between native trees like the Cedar and Palmetto and the best of the introduced trees that are not too invasive, such as the Japanese pittosporum and the Poinciana.”

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For more information, see Quick Links at www.conservation.bm, Bermuda’s Botanical Wonderland by Christine Phillips-Watlington and www.arborday.org.