My Wonderful Country Belize: March 2015

The National Symbols of Belize

The National Flag is very important to our country, it symbolize the "Independence of Belize".
The Red, Blue and White symbolize the country "UNITY". The design of the flag is very unique in the middle is the Coat of Arms in order to associate unity of the two political parties, the UDP and the PUP. The PUP is the People United Party and the UDP is the United Democratic Party. The committed decide to give a royal blue to the flag with two red stripes one in the top and the other in the bottom.

The coat of arms was adopted upon independence and it has a slightly different from the British Colony.
The circular border of the coat is formed by fifty leaves within the circle is a mahogany tree, in front is a shield tierced per pall inverted.
The Coat of arms is divided in three section by vertical lines and an inverted V.
The ship and the waves is one section, the upper section shows the tool of the timber industry in Belize, the other is a paddle and and a squaring axe.
Supporting is the two men in the middle represent the British and the Spaniards.
Motto: "Sub Umbra Floreo" which means "Under the shades I flourish".

The Black Orchid also known as the Prosthechea Cochleatum is the national flower of our wonderful Belize.
The orchid grows on trees in damp areas, and flowers nearly all year long.
Its clustered bulb like stems vary in size up to six inches long and carry two or three leaves.
The flower is greenish yellow petals and sepals with purple blotches near base.
The "lip" is shaped like a value of a clam shell and is deep purple brown, almost black with conspicuous radiating purple veins.

The Keel Billed Toucan also known as the "Ramphastos Solfurantus" is our National Bird of our country, Belize.
The Keel Billed Toucan main attraction is the exotic bright colors such as green, blue, red, yellow and orange feathers and his great canoe shaped of its peek. It is mostly black with bright yellow cheeks and chest, its red under the tail
This bird is about 20 inches length.
The toucans are found in open areas of the country with large trees. They make a monotonous frog like croak that really does not complimentits beautiful colours.
They eat fruits by cutting with the serrated edge bills.
Toucans nest in holes in trees, using naturals holes that are made from woodpeckers, often enlarging the cavity by removing soft, rotten wood.
They lay two to four eggs which are incubating by both parents.
The nesting stage lasts from six to seven weeks.

The "Tapir" or also known as the "Mountain Cow" is the largest land mammal of the American tropics.
The tapir is a stoutly built animal with short legs about the size of a cow and weighs up to 600 pounds.
The color is a dusty brown with a fringe around the eyes and lips, white tipped areas and occasional patches of fur on the throat and chest.
Its almost related to the horse and is kin to the rhinoceros.
All tapirs are vegetarians.
The spends much time in water or mud shallows and is a strong swimmer.
The National Animal is protected under the wildlife protection laws of Belize, since the hunting of the tapir is illegal.
Baird's Tapir average up to 2 meters (6.6 ft) length and 1.2 meters (3.9 ft) in height and adults weight 150-400 kilometers.
They have 4 toes on each front foot and three toes on each back foot.

The Mahogany Tree also known as the "Swietenia Macrophilla" is one of the magnificent giant tree of the Belize rainforest.
Rising straight and tall to over a hundrfed feet from great buttresses at the roots, it emerges above the canopy of the surronding trees with a crown of large, shining green leaves.
The British were the ones that exploited the forest for mahogany in the 17th century and it was exported to the United Kingdom.
The Mahogany also plays an important part in the Coat of Arms under the motto "Sub Umbra Floreo" which means Under the shade (of the mahogany tree) I flourish.