Spider Lily

Lady of the Night

It’s springtime on St. John and we’ve had some rain after a prolonged dry spell, the result of which, it seems, is lots of flowers. Yesterday, the spider lily bloomed and last night multiple flowers of the lady of the night (night blooming ceruis) that I keep in a flower pot also opened up.

bananaquit and amarat flower

The amarat is often mistaken for the obnoxious wild tamarind, especially when it’s small. The amarat, however, matures into a tall hardwood tree and produces attractive flowers in the spring. It belongs to the acacia family (locally called kasha) but unlike its unfriendly relatives the amarat bark is smooth and spineless. In the photo on top, a bananaquit sucks the nectar from an amarat flower

American Kestral

The telephone pole that I can see from my deck seems to be a favorite perch for this American kestral also known as a sparrow hawk or killy killy

“The mampoo is dropping it’s sticky seeds that find there way all over my shoes, my socks, my pants and all over the house.”

Funny thing, I’ve been annoyed with the sticky mampoo seeds and decided to blog about it. I remembered writing about them in the past so I did a search to see what I wrote. It turns out that the above paragraph was written one year ago to the day.

My friend, King, once told me to cut down the big mampoo because in his words it was a “dis GUSTING tree.” I didn’t realize what he meant until it flowered in the spring and dropped its sticky seeds all over the place.

From the SeeStJohn.com:

“In the springtime the mampoo goes to seed, the female of the species, making a kind of flower that starts off green and then turns black.

The tennis-ball sizes flower looks like a miniature tree that’s branches end with little black seeds instead of leaves.

On the end of each seed is a ball of sticky hooked spikes that stick on to skin or clothing like sticky velcro. If you have a mampoo on the way to your house you will surely find the little seeds everywhere during April and May, the time that they fall from the tree.

Disgusting it may be, but I still find the mampoo to be a beautiful shade tree and I’m happy to have them near my house, except in April and May, that is.

Check out the descriptive Mampoo & Mampoo seed photos

St. John Music Schedule Friday April 15

Beach Bar - ISH – 9:00 – 777-4220

Castaways – Dusty Spoon – 8:00 – 11:00 – 777-3316
High Tide - John Lee – 7:00 – 10:00 – 714-6169
Morgan’s Mango – Lauren – 6:30 – 9:30 – 693-8141
Ocean Grill - Luba – 6:00 – 9:00 – 693 3304
Westin, Cruz Bay Prime – James Cobb – 6:30 – 10:00 – 693-8802

See Weekly Music Schedule

Note: I’m doing the best I can to present an accurate music schedule, but to be sure, it would be a great idea to call the restaurant or bar beforehand to confirm.