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Wild Trees in the Cayman Islands. 2nd ed. 2007. By Fred Burton,
illustrated by Penny Clifford. International Reptile Conservation
Foundation (IRCF), San Jose, California, on behalf of the
National Trust for the Cayman Islands. 240 pp. Softcover –
ISBN 987-1-4276-2168-9 – $ 20. Copies may be ordered from
the National Trust (www.nationaltrust.org.ky) or from the IRCF
(www.IRCF.org).

I once defined biology as the study of animals and their food,
when an acquaintance, who happened to be a botanist, cor-
rected me by saying that biology was really the study of plants
and their parasites. Regardless of whose definition you favor, the
reality is that all life forms on earth are inextricably intertwined,
which explains in a round-about fashion how the International
Reptile Conservation Foundation (IRCF) came to publish a
book about trees. In fact, the Foundation’s statement of purpose
says that the organization works both for the conservation of
reptiles and the natural habitats and ecosystems on which they
rely. So, a book about trees, especially “wild” trees is not such a
bizarre concept, particularly when one considers that the book
also is about the Cayman Islands, home of the Grand Cayman
Blue Iguana (Cyclura lewisi), the conservation of which the IRCF
has supported from the organization’s inception. In fact, all pro-
ceeds from the book are earmarked for the Blue Iguana Recovery
Programme.

The most obvious purpose of a book about the trees of the
Cayman Islands is to help the reader identify the myriad differ-
ent species found on the three islands that comprise the nation.
How well does it work? I’m not sure, but am inclined to think
it does quite well. Unfortunately, I could not put it to a real test,
since I haven’t had the good fortune to visit the islands in sev-
eral years. However, using photographs of trees and leaves and
some material gleaned from herbaria that contained Caribbean
species, the keys worked reasonably well, even for a biologist
more inclined toward animals than their food. The only prob-
lems I encountered involved specimens from other West Indian
islands, which might well have represented different varieties
than those found in the Caymans (common, cosmopolitan

species were easily and accurately identified). Regardless of my
success, the choices were obvious, the language clear (even to one
not entirely familiar with botanical jargon), and the options pro-
vided at each step generally corrected mistakes before venturing
too far along the wrong path. The individual descriptions were

Plants and the 
Animals that Eat Them

suitable for either amateurs or professional herpetologists, and
the price is eminently affordable.

Kenneth L. Krysko
Florida Museum of Natural History, Division of Herpetology

University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Contributors
Matthew J. Aresco, Ray E. Ashton, Jr., William J. Barichivich,
Joan E. Berish, Michael Bresette, Kurt A. Buhlmann, Joseph A.

Butler, C. Kenneth Dodd, Jr., Michael A. Ewert, Terence M.
Farrell, J. Whitfield Gibbons, Margaret S. Gunzburger, George
L. Heinrich, Richard Herren, John B. Iverson, Dale R. Jackson,
Kevin P. Jansen, Chris Johnson, Peter G. May, Earl D. McCoy,
Brian K. Mealey, Walter E. Meshaka, Jr., Anne Meylan, Peter A.
Meylan, Paul E. Moler, Henry R. Mushinsky, Larry H. Ogren,
Peter C. H. Pritchard, Anthony Redlow, Anders G. J. Rhodin,
Jeffrey R. Schmid, Richard A. Seigel, Robert M. Shealy, Kelly
Stewart, R. Brent Thomas, George E. Wallace, Dawn S. Wilson,
Blair Witherington, Robert T. Zappalorti.

194 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2007 BOOK REVIEWS

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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2007 195BOOK REVIEWS

adequate to confirm (or deny) a proper identification, with
drawings of the most critical features nicely complemented by
the same clear language I found in the keys. An additional fea-
ture is that the bark of all species covered is illustrated in color.
In some instances, bark can be definitive, but in many others,
one looks just like the next. I might have preferred color photo-
graphs of flowers or fruits to those of the bark, but that’s quib-
bling over a minor point. In the end, the tool worked, at least to
the extent that I could test it. Maps and indices to common and
scientific names round out the utilitarian features of this volume.

A less obvious purpose of the book, especially if you skip
the introduction and go directly to the key and species descrip-
tions, is to promote an appreciation of nature and stress its
value to an island nation. As in so many other West Indian
nations, the impact of European settlement was felt much ear-
lier here than on the mainland, and ongoing development to
accommodate population growth and a burgeoning tourism
industry is threatening the few remaining wild places. As the
Governor of the Cayman Islands stated in the preface to this
second edition, nature “will become increasingly valuable, only
if it is conserved.” The destruction caused by Hurricane Ivan in
2004 clearly illustrated how an appreciation of trees is most
intense when no trees are standing. Consequently, however,
Ivan renewed interest in propagating native species, which gen-
erally are more tolerant of the hurricanes with which they
evolved than more recent arrivals that never had to cope with
150-mph winds. A very brief section on propagation acknowl-
edges that interest, less with detailed instructions than by point-
ing readers to resources available at the Queen Elizabeth II
Botanic Park.

Aside from the principal functions, I very much enjoyed
the historical perspectives presented in the introduction (pre-
sumably frustrated by impenetrable forests and an inability to
find water in 1586, the men in Sir Francis Drake’s fleet set fire
to the woods and sailed away, beginning the deforestation that
continues today). I laughed at the inclusion in the instructions
on how to use this book the very prominent warnings about
those trees that can cause considerable discomfort to those fool-
ish enough to handle them (Maiden Plum, Manchineel, and, if
you’re on Little Cayman, Poison Tree). The reason for my wry
humor is that many West Indians fear reptiles, especially snakes,

but I’ve never encountered anyone who fears trees. Apparently,
people distinguish between trees that can inflict pain and those
that don’t, but do not make the same distinction for animals…
I also sympathized with the need to explain the use of names.
Despite an effort to use local names when possible, that just did-
n’t work in all cases. Sometimes a name applied to several
species, sometimes a species had several names, and sometimes
a species was so insignificant (no obvious utility and/or rare and
inconspicuous) that it had no name at all. Having encountered
similar situations that apply to animals, I long for the day when
we all learn only the scientific names of species. Could that be
so much harder? As a child learning to speak, I can only guess
that one name is as good as another. I realize that scientific
names sometimes change when we reclassify plants or animals
to accommodate new information about their relationships, but
at least each species generally has only one name. I also appreci-
ated the necessary subjectivity of having to distinguish between
trees and shrubs, which represent a continuum in which some
species straddle the line (like lizards, trees and shrubs apparently
don’t read the textbooks that tell them what they are and how
they should behave).

Criticisms essentially boil down to a single issue. I under-
stand the reasons for including only wild trees (endemic and
native species along with several “naturalized” forms, such as
Coconut Palms, Mangos, and Tamarind, that are reproducing
and sustaining populations in the wild), and I can relate to the
desire to push people onto trails and into the bush where they
can encounter and maybe learn to appreciate nature. However,
I also face the reality that the animals I study often associate with
introduced orchard or ornamental species in the less than pris-
tine habitats in gardens and on the grounds of hotels and busi-
nesses. To truly understand these associations, I need also to
identify the “real” interlopers in paradise. Including all intro-
duced forms might quickly have become unwieldy, but the most
common ornamentals surely could have been accommodated
for those of us who often work along the boundaries between
nature and artifice. Maybe in the third edition…

Robert Powell
Department of Biology, Avila University

Kansas City, Missouri

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