Guadeloupe is an overseas department of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and two Îles des Saintes—as well as many uninhabited islands and outcroppings. It is south of Antigua and Barbuda and Montserrat and north of Dominica. The capital city is Basse-Terre, on the southern west coast of Basse-Terre Island; the most populous city is Les Abymes and the main centre of business is neighbouring Pointe-à-Pitre, both on Grande-Terre Island. It had a population of 378,561 in 2024.
The Lesser Antilles are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. They are distinguished from the large islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc which begins east of Puerto Rico and swings south through the Leeward and Windward Islands almost to South America and then turns west along the Venezuelan coast as far as Aruba. Barbados is isolated about 100 miles east of the Windwards.
The Leeward Islands are a group of islands situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. Starting with the Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, they extend southeast to Guadeloupe and its dependencies. In English, the term Leeward Islands refers to the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. The more southerly part of this chain, starting with Dominica, is called the Windward Islands. Dominica was originally considered a part of the Leeward Islands, but was transferred from the British Leeward Islands to the British Windward Islands in 1940.
The music of the Lesser Antilles encompasses the music of this chain of small islands making up the eastern and southern portion of the West Indies. Lesser Antillean music is part of the broader category of Caribbean music; much of the folk and popular music is also a part of the Afro-American musical complex, being a mixture of African, European and indigenous American elements. The Lesser Antilles' musical cultures are largely based on the music of African slaves brought by European traders and colonizers. The African musical elements are a hybrid of instruments and styles from numerous West African tribes, while the European slaveholders added their own musics into the mix, as did immigrants from India. In many ways, the Lesser Antilles can be musically divided based on which nation colonized them.
Marattiaceae is the only family of extant (living) ferns in the order Marattiales. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, Marattiales is the only order in the subclass Marattiidae. The family has six genera and about 110 species. Many are different in appearance from other ferns, having large fronds and fleshy rootstocks.
Antillean Creole is a French-based creole that is primarily spoken in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary include elements of French, Carib, English, and African languages.
The Lesser Antillean iguana is a large arboreal lizard endemic to the Lesser Antilles. It is one of three species of lizard of the genus Iguana and is in severe decline due to habitat destruction, introduced feral predators, hunting, and hybridization with its introduced sister species, the green iguana. Successful captive breeding of this species has been limited to only two instances, as most captive-laid eggs tend to be infertile.
Guadeloupe is an archipelago of more than 12 islands, as well as islets and rocks situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. It is located in the Leeward Islands in the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, a partly volcanic island arc. To the north lie Antigua and Barbuda and the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat, with Dominica lying to the south.
The Îles des Saintes, also known as Les Saintes, is a group of small islands in the archipelago of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. It is part of the Canton of Trois-Rivières and is divided into two communes: Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas. It is in the arrondissement of Basse-Terre and also in Guadeloupe's 4th constituency.
Coccothrinax barbadensis is a palm found in the Lesser Antilles. Like other members of the genus Coccothrinax, C. barbadensis is a fan palm. The leaves are widely used to thatch roofs.
Danaea is a fern genus of approximately 50 species in the eusporangiate fern family Marattiaceae. They are small to intermediately large ferns with erect or creeping rhizomes and usually once-pinnate leaves with opposite pinnae. The fertile leaves are contracted, acrostichoid and covered below with sunken, linear synangia. The genus Danaea has a neotropical distribution, occurring from southern Mexico through Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America to Bolivia, Paraguay and the Mata Atlantica in Brazil and Northern Argentina. There is also a population on Isla del Coco in the Pacific.
The lesser Antillean bullfinch is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Saint Barth, Saint Martin, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The insular single leaf bat or Lesser Antillean long-tongued bat is a species of leaf-nosed bat. It is found on the Lesser Antilles islands in the Caribbean Sea.
The Caribbean bioregion is a biogeographic region that includes the islands of the Caribbean Sea and nearby Atlantic islands, which share a fauna, flora and mycobiota distinct from surrounding bioregions.
Dr Maarten Joost Maria Christenhusz is a Dutch botanist, natural historian and photographer.
The 1839 Martinique earthquake occurred on the morning of January 11 with an estimated magnitude of 7.8 Ms , the largest in the Lesser Antilles since 1690. The maximum intensity of this earthquake was assigned IX on both the Mercalli and MSK intensity scales, which left the cities of Saint-Pierre and Fort Royal almost completely destroyed. Estimation on the number of human losses varies from 390 to even 4,000 making this one of the deadliest earthquakes in the Caribbean.
The Lesser Antillean dry forests ecoregion covers the dry forests of the coastal lowlands of the Lesser Antilles, where the eastern Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. These forests generally form a band around the interior wet forests of higher elevations, and because they are often flat, they are under the most pressure for human settlement and agriculture.
Parc naturel régional de la Martinique is one of 54 French regional nature parks. With a surface area of approximately 63,000 ha (240 sq mi), it covers more than half of the island, overlapping 32 of 34 communes - including approximately 100,000 inhabitants. The park works to preserve one of 34 biodiversity hotspots on the planet. The biodiversity hotspot map identifies areas for preservation by two criteria, one being a certain rate of endemism: that the flora and fauna are not found elsewhere, and because at least 70% of its primary vegetation has been lost.
