NCC wants input on protecting rare flowering herb
(CNS): Cayman Sage (Salvia caymanensis), a flowering herb native exclusively to Grand Cayman, was thought to have become extinct until it was rediscovered growing in the road verge on the Queen’s Highway in 2007. Now, because of its precarious existence, the National Conservation Council has begun a public consultation on a proposed species conservation plan to protect this critically endangered plant and restore a self-sustaining population in the wild supported by cultivation to protect its genetic diversity.
In a release about the public consultation, the NCC said the wild population has died out, but multiple generations from seeds collected from wild plants have grown in large numbers and are planted out in the QEII Botanic Park and elsewhere. The plan is to propagate large numbers of the plant in collaboration with the Botanic Park and allow the park to sell Cayman Sage plants to the public on Grand Cayman only.
The public will be encouraged to plant it in gardens and diverse habitats throughout Grand Cayman. People will be able to hold, propagate, plant, buy and sell specimens of cultivated Cayman Sage, but specimens may not be transferred to ownership outside of Grand Cayman. “This is intended to retain Cayman Sage’s natural distribution as a plant unique to that one island,” officials said.
The herb is fully protected at all times under the National Conservation Act, and people cannot take it from the wild without a permit, but anyone interested in planting and cultivating it can acquire the plants from the Botanic Park. All plants in private ownership under the proposed plan will be classed as cultivated stock and may change hands between growers.
The public is invited to submit comments during the consultation period, which runs until 30 June, and includes an online survey to help measure public opinion of the plan.
The public can also send questions or comments in writing by email to ConservationCouncil@gov.ky, by hand delivery to the DoE offices, or mailed to PO Box 10202, Grand Cayman KY1-1002.
A copy of the proposal can be downloaded here or a hard copy picked up from the Department of Environment offices at Environmental Centre, 580 North Sound Road.
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Category: Land Habitat, Science & Nature
Can’t miss the slight irony in saving the ‘Cayman Sage’, but we’ll keep bulldozing the blue iguana.
Why are protected native Cayman Islands plants, trees etc not sold in all the plant stores to encourage these to be planted throughout the islands and ensure their survival ?
This plant been in west bay from day one.
Asking for a friend, is this herb safe from iguanas and developers? If not, place the herb on all three island to support sustainability. If a disease was to hit Grand Cayman that would be the end of this beautiful herb.
F**k this herb. We’ve got apartments to be building and politicians to be bribing.
Developer excavators soon rid the island of this plant too.
NCC….can u press the govt into a rare mamaliam species called “native caymanians” .. we are a dissapearing breed…very valuable . kind. loving people! lol
Who fault that is?
Jamaicans?
All humans in Cayman are invasive.. You just need to go back 400 or 500 years to see.
Are they going to do like the Archive and give out a bunch of stickers saying you can’t make copies?
Any culinary, herbal or medicinal uses of this plant?
See page 694, Dr Proctor’s Flora of the Cayman Islands (1984 edition).
No mention there of this plant having any use, while with other plants in this book there often is a use listed.
Which suggests either there was/is no use, or it was not relayed to Dr Proctor …
But there is a newer edition of this book … which I don’t have. Available at National Trust offices.
Not that anyone is aware of.