MOWI PRESENTS: INVASIVE / NATIVE – WEST INDIAN BOTANICA

THE WORK

Kathleen McDonald was researching her family’s ancestry and while visiting her grandmother’s house in St. Lucia discovered artefacts, artwork, and, letters written in Kweyol by her great grandmother. Among the artwork, she discovered her great grandmother’s pressed flowers and photograms of the various plants in the Caribbean. McDonald realised her grandmother had been cataloguing the native and invasive species of flora in the Caribbean. 

Kathleen McDonald wanted to preserve all the information she discovered so she renovated the house to allow it to function as The Museum of the West Indies. MOWI is based in Viex Fort, St. Lucia, but also has satellite venues in Barbados and Jamaica.

The work shown here is curated from the larger body of work that McDonald found, and shows the scientific-artwork her great grandmother made to catalogue the flora of the region. Like Anna Atkins, McDonald’s great grandmother was interested in the plant life that surrounded her and documented them photographic techniques.

THE FLORA

In the West Indies, naturalized species of plants have become fully integrated into some of the autochthonous island communities and in these situations exotic trees such as mango (Mangifera indica) or breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) do not stand out as ecologically incompatible with the indigenous ones.

Floristically mixed communities have been created providing habitats for native birds, mammals and other animals, as well as indigenous epiphytes, parasites and climbers. Many people regard such artificial vegetation as "natural".

Some species which do not seem to be fully integrated into the primeval vegetation were possibly introduced or moved into new areas, or even from island to island during pre-Columbian times. The blue mahoe (Hibiscus elatus) could have been brought to Jamaica from Cuba by the Arawaks to be used for bark rope. The Island Caribs might have brought the larouman (or tirite) Ischnosiphon arouma from Trinidad or mainland South America to Dominica and Guadeloupe for use in basket making.