Bermuda has been given national symbols to promote the Island and give due recognition to environmental heritage.

To mark Heritage Month this May, Environment Minister Dennis Lister said on Friday, similar to the National Sports that were announced in 2000, specific areas of the Bermuda environment were to be honoured.

The national tree is to be the Cedar; the national bird is the Cahow; the national flower is the Bermudiana; and the national vegetable is the Bermuda Onion.

"It should come as no surprise that the Cedar, a native plant to Bermuda, has been selected as our national tree," said Mr. Lister. "Since the founding of the colony in 1609, the Cedar has been an integral part of the landscape that greeted the early settlers in the seventeenth century."

The Minister said the Cahow had been chosen because of its qualities of perseverance, strength and endurance.

He said as a species, it had met with adversity, but said it had faced it squarely and survived.

Mr. Lister said the Cahow was recorded in 1603, and although initially plentiful, they were indiscriminately slaughtered, making them almost extinct.

But the discovery more than 300 years later of 20 breeding pairs, and their conservation since then by David Wingate, meant they were starting to flourish again.

"I am sure that members of this Honourable House would agree that the Bermudiana is an endemic plant that radiates beauty, regardless of the harshness of its surrounding conditions," said the Minister in Parliament yesterday when referring to the national flower.

"Consequently, it has been able to grow, flower and propagate under some of the most adverse conditions year after year.

"The Bermudiana is a member of the iris family that was first recognised by Carolus Linnaeus as being different from the American blue eyed iris. This was confirmed in 1884. The Bermudiana naturally deserves the title of national flower."

And Mr. Lister said the Bermuda onion had come to symbolise the multi-layered complexity of the Island.

He said the first mention of onion seeds being introduced to Bermuda was in 1616, and for many years Bermuda exported its onions to the West Indies and the United States.

He added:"It is the Government's hope that they help to unite us as a people, bind us to our past and act as a reference point that gives us a measure of security as we look towards the future."