POINCIANA UICHERRIMA) The peacock flower plays a tragic role in the history of the slave trade. Tins beautiful tropical shrub, with its fine, lacy leaves and brilliant orange flowers that are irresistible to humming-birds, produces a seedpod whose poison was well known to women of the West Indies. FAMILY:Fabaceae HABITAT:Tropical and subtropical mountain slopes, lowland rain forest NATIVE TO:West Indies COMMON NAMES:Red bird of paradise, Barbados pride, ayoowiri, flos pavonis, tsjétti mandáru Medical literature of the eighteenth century describes the attempts of slave women to end their pregnancies so that their children would not contribute to the wealth of a slave owner. This rebellion took many forms: some women sought medicine from the plantation doctor in the hopes that it would cause a miscarriage, but others relied on plants like the peacock flower. It was believed to help bring on menstruation, or “bring down the flowers,” as European doctors sometimes called it. In 1705 botanical explorer Maria Sibylla Merian first described the ways in which West Indian slaves would use the plant as a form of resistance against their owners: “The Indians, who are not treated well by their Dutch masters, use the seeds [of this plant] to abort their children, so that their children will not become slaves like they are.
