Bermuda Cedar: The Tree That Built an Island — and Nearly Disappeared

Bermuda Cedar: The Tree That Built an Island — and Nearly Disappeared

Bermuda Cedar: The Tree That Built an Island — and Nearly Disappeared

Long before Bermuda’s pastel houses, limestone roofs and winding roads appeared, much of the island was covered by a dense subtropical forest dominated by one remarkable tree: the Bermuda cedar.

When Spanish navigator Juan de Bermúdez discovered the islands in the early 1500s — traditionally dated to 1505 — Bermuda was still uninhabited. The endemic Bermuda cedar, Juniperus Bermudiana, was one of the dominant species covering the landscape.

Found naturally nowhere else in the world, it would become one of the most important trees in Bermuda’s history.

The Tree That Helped Build Bermuda

A mature Bermuda cedar can reach approximately 50 feet in height and live for hundreds of years.

Early English settlers soon discovered that its timber was light, strong, aromatic and remarkably resistant to rot and marine borers.

Cedar became an essential building material, used for beams, doors, furniture and household objects. But its most famous application was shipbuilding.

By the late 17th and 18th centuries, Bermuda had developed a thriving maritime industry producing vessels renowned for their speed and manoeuvrability.

The legendary Bermuda sloop, built extensively from local cedar, became particularly prized for its ability to sail efficiently to windward. Bermuda-built vessels were used for trade and transportation, as well as by privateers and as dispatch and naval craft.

Cedar became so valuable that Bermuda’s government repeatedly introduced legislation intended to protect the island’s dwindling supply.

Then came catastrophe.

The Bermuda Cedar Blight

Beginning in the 1940s, two accidentally introduced species of scale insect — Carulaspis minima and Lepidosaphes newsteadi — began attacking the trees.

The result was one of the greatest ecological disasters in Bermuda’s history.

Between 1946 and 1953, approximately 95 percent of Bermuda’s cedar trees died – leaving hillsides that were once covered in green filled with the grey-white skeletons of dead cedars.

The consequences extended throughout the ecosystem. Birds lost important nesting habitat, native bluebird populations declined sharply, and Bermuda’s endemic cicada eventually became extinct.

Biological controls, including predatory ladybird beetles, were introduced to combat the scale insects. Foreign trees were also planted to restore greenery and provide windbreaks. Among them was Casuarina, or Australian pine, which subsequently became an invasive species and created environmental problems of its own.

The Cedars That Refused to Die

Yet something remarkable had happened.

About five percent of Bermuda’s cedars survived.

Many possessed a natural resistance to the scale insects, and these hardy specimens ultimately provided the foundation for the species’ recovery.

Beginning in earnest in the early 1980s, conservationists have propagated new cedars using seeds collected from these resistant trees – a project that continues to this day.

Although the majestic cedar forests encountered by Bermuda’s earliest visitors may never return, today thankfully cedars of all shapes and sizes are again growing throughout the island.

More than simply a tree, the Bermuda cedar is a living connection to the island’s earliest history — and an extraordinary symbol of the resilience of Bermuda itself.

• The Tree That Refused to Die: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vhJFEsfqFAE
• Learn More About Touring Bermuda: https://bermudaheritagetours.com/best-bermuda-shore-excursions/
• More Bermuda Stories: https://bermudianhistory.com/exploring-the-gibraltar-of-the-west/