Typhoon-proofing the Bangkal Trees

Last month I got to see the Boracay bangkal trees in flower. They were not very spectacular but definitely very interesting. The bloom clusters of bangkal are different from the usual inflorescence of any other flowering tree. I posted on a previous blog some pictures of bangkal flower. They really look like space orbs. So to see trees full of them was like looking at odd Christmas trees with the weird almost white fuzzy balls.

The establshments over at long white beach are flanked by a lot of bangkal trees, or Nauclea orientalis. They thrive in the marshy coastal areas of Station 1. In the Lion's Den, there are a handful of very large trees. When I stayed there the end of May, all of them were in bloom. The dark green leaves were strongly contrasted by the strange blooms.

Last week I returned to find the bangkal trees in Lion's Den greatly being dismembered. The owner hired a few natives to bravely climb the old towering trees and cut a generous number of the mature branches. The flowers look ever weirder now , scattered on the ground. People passing by can't help but stop and wonder what the strange things were. They thought they were fruits rather than flowers.

Though I was saddened to see the tree limbs falling one after the other, it was necessary to prepare the tree through typhoon season in the islands. A top heavy tree might not have the chance against the strength of open winds. Though it is for the safety of people residing in the area, it was also needed to make sure that the age old trees would be preserved, still standing after the numerous typhoons predicted to hit Boracay.

Some Seedling Stories

I am overhauling my mom's garden. I had to giveaway most of my native tree seedlings as most of them are already becoming big. Since they are after all trees, they would not be growing to their fullest in pots in our roof garden. So I asked a few friends to adopt some of my seedlings. Luckily there are a lot who were willing. But before handing them over I documented them all with photos. Here are some of them.

I got this seedling from Prof. Roberto Coronel in Los Banos, Laguna. This is galo or what might be Anacolosa frutescens. The galo, as stated in the Filipino Heritage book, is one of our native fruit trees with an 'agreeable' taste. I have not tasted the galo fruit nor have seen an actual fruit. But the full grown tree in Prof Coronel's farm is very attractive, probably suitable both as orchard tree or even just a simple garden specimen.

I grew this seedling from seeds collected from the UP Arboretum. Mr. Emil Sotalbo said that the tree we got it from is Sterculia cordata var. montana. I saw it in bloom. It has very nice cream pendant flowers. I only collected 3 seeds and only one germinated.

In early 2008, I collected beautiful shiny seeds from the lone supa (Sindora supa) tree behind the UP Alumni Center. I planted them into small pots but nothing immediately germinated . After more than a year of no activity, seedlings started popping out in my garden, even in pots I don't remember planting seeds in. Supa probably has a long gestation period.

I was surprised to learn that Cerbera manghas was growing wild in Ronald Achacoso's family property in Zambales. Ronald gave me a few seeds. The seeds are big and they take a very long time to germinate, much like the supa.

I collected a handful of bani, or Pongamia pinnata, seeds in front of St. Andrew's church in Bel Air, Makati. I only got to germinate one. Like the supa, it took many, many months before that sole seedling appeared.

The Sweet Smelling Kamuning

Just a quick post! I saw our kamuning in bloom today. No, this is not the first time it flowered. In fact it flowers quite regularly. But this is just one of those special days that I really stopped to smell 'dem flowers. What a wonderful plant to take for granted.

Kamuning is Murraya paniculata. It is quite well known in tropical gardens and in the bonsai hobby. It is known to foreigners as orange jasmine, a little irony because it is not actually related to the genus Jasminum which carries most of the true jasmine species. It is related closer to oranges though so half of its common name is true. That is why the smell of the kamuning flower is similar to the smell of Citrus flowers, so sweet with a hint of pungent flavor. Kamuning is also closely associated with Murraya koenigii, a source of the curry spice. I am not sure though if kamuning has some gastronomic use as most of its edible cousins.

What Vigan was Named After

I still have a few blogs from our last trip to Ilocos that I did not get the chance to post...

Our labor day trip to Ilocos took us first to the heritage town of Vigan. This time around we got the chance to visit the Crisologo Museum, which delightfully was filled with a lot of interesting memorabilia collected by the well known Crisologo clan (the main heritage street was named after one of the Crisologo patriarchs). But what really got my attention was what was posted near the door. At the entrance to the ancestral house cum museum, a sign was hanged pointing out that the town of Vigan was named after this particular plant, the biga. There is an actual biga specimen standing near the doorway.

I have known biga ever since I started collecting plants. I used to collect plants from the genus Alocasia. The plant known as biga is a member of this genus, which includes some 10 species native to the Philippines. These include biga or what probably is Alocasia macrorrhiza.

The biga is actually common in the Philippines located near wet areas. Even in Metro Manila we could easily find the biga. They grow in ditches and water logged vacant lots. The common Philippine plant however ranks as one of the biggest in the genus and even in the family Araceae. The wide big leaves are heartshaped, used by many as a distinct shape to adorn their houses with in fiesta season. Its grandeur form makes it a a deserving plant for which a city like Vigan was named after.

The Real Pinoy Rambutan

Usually in the rainy months, the red rambutan becomes a common fare among fruit lovers. The hairy fruit, which is just a usual sight among pinoys may look weird to first timers, especially foreigners. I remember chancing upon an episode of that U.S. TV series Ugly Betty. They were featuring fad fruits in New York and the protagonist Betty discovered a rare find, the fabled tikki fruit. There is no such thing as a tikki fruit, but they used the rambutan as representation in the show.

To confirm whether it was the rambutan that was used in Ugly Betty, I googled the episode and it was indeed the fruit. But I also stumbled upon a chat room arguing about the rambutan's origin. Malaysians and Filipinos frequent the site and they started a debate whether the fruit is Philippine native or not. The exchange of words bordered on obnoxious. It however fueled me to do my own research on whether the fruit is native to RP.

Most literature would credit Malaysia and Indonesia as the origins of Nephelium lappaceum or rambutan. But the tree has been domesticated widely in Southeast Asia. So much so that the fruit has equivalent cultural uses and vernacular names in different Southeast Asian cultures. But undeniably the fruit has become common in this region and in the Philippines has been associated in the identity of different places, like Davao. However, some scientist could still not discount the fact that much of the philippines is still unexplored. The islands of Palawan and parts of Sulu have exhibited similar flora and fauna of that of the Malaysian plate. Plus there are vague accounts of wild old trees of rambutan (and lanzones) found in some Philippine forests.

Whether the rambutan is native or not may not be proven in the near future. But what might be sad is that there is a confirmed Nephelium variety that might be greatly unheard of by Pinoys. This species, Nephelium ramboutan-ake or bulala (some may call it kapulasan), is very much native. I had only seen a fruitless tree before, which I could not tell apart from the rambutan. The fruit is said to be less sweet, but the hair is shorter and less pronounced. I only saw it in pictures.

A few weeks ago I scouted for some latundan bananas in Nepa Q Mart ( which was along my way home) when I chanced upon a familiar fruit resembling the rambutan. It had shorter hair but was very much redder in color than the rambutan. The vendor was selling it under the pretense that it is the more popular fruit. But even with the seller's confusion, it didn't hinder me to buy a couple of kilograms of the suspected bulala. I brought it home to have it tasted by members of our household. They found the bulala less sweet, more sour. My dad says he likes it better than rambutan because it has more flavor and easier to eat. The skin was easier to break than rambutan. The flesh is more tender. One down side is that its shelf life might be shorter. The day after I bought it, a lot of the uneaten fruits were already rotten. But even so the bulala shows much promise, maybe better than its famous cousin. We could hope that more Pinoys would discover this Philippine native and develop it to a more marketable variety.

My Mom’s Garden Legacy in Me

It has been a while since I blogged. The other day someone asked me why I abandoned posting. It is because of a few unfortunate events that happened in the past month or so...

Last Tuesday was my mom’s 40th day after death. We had a simple mass celebrated with Fr. Arlo Yap officiating. Fr. Arlo’s homily was enlightening. It pointed out the importance of that 40 day period. He said that in the bible, the number 40 has actually symbolized a lot of transitions, including the purging in Noah’s ark, the exodus of the Jews into the promise land, the temptation of Jesus Christ after baptism in the River Jordan and the period from Resurrection to Ascension. The number 40, in days and even in years, has therefore a legitimate Catholic significance. In our family’s case, the transition is going through life this time without my mother. O bla di, o bla da…life must go on.

My mom, Elisa Espiritu Gozon passed away so suddenly of an aneurism. She has been a vital part of our lives in many years. She was a great loss in our family. She was the one who takes care of the household. Our house is literally empty without her.

For the past month I have been contemplating to write my version of mom’s eulogy. But I didn’t know where and how to start it. I have lots of stories to tell and memories of her to share, but I could not organize my thoughts. I find personal blogging easy, taking about an hour or so to finish. But I never expected that it was difficult to write about my mom, especially now that she is gone. Fr. Arlo’s 40th day homily made it easier for me to do so.

My sister Carol and I assumed the role of organizing the things my mom left behind. In doing so we unearthed so many treasures, maybe priceless only to us because of memories attached to them. She was a collector, who filled our house with different stuff and curios. We have lots of pictures and it was my mom who organized them into albums. All my personal mementos which I myself would not care to keep, she kept tucked away in one part of her closet. There were a lot of greeting cards, even letters decades old. Some gave us a laugh or two (especially letters to sisters from old high school friends and boyfriends) but with a few, we could not help to be teary eyed. A number of the photo albums I have not seen at all before. One of it contained pictures from when before I was born (I was the youngest and my youngest sibling, Teng, is 8 years older than I am). It is there where I rediscovered some pictures of my mom in her old plant shop.

When my mom graduated in college with a degree in Home Economics, she established a small business of selling real live plants in Cartimar. She would do the selling and sourcing herself at first. But eventually my dad quit his job in the old Public Works office to help my mom in her plant shop. I used to hear from her that they sold plants then along with the matriarchs of established landscape firms we know today (which I personally proved because whenever I meet old landscapers or flower enthusiasts, they ask me if I am related to Aling Ely or Mang Andy – my mom and dad). But eventually my parents left their plant business in Cartimar and established a shop (in our home) in La Loma, this time selling artificial flowers.

My oldest recollection of my mom’s job is that she arranges the flowers and my dad is the one that delivers them. When I was young I remember our house being packed with boxes and plastic flower arrangements. My exposure to their business has actually made it easy for me to remember the names of the different plants and flowers. Even before I entered college I already know the following plant names: the likes of Podocarpus, Saxifraga, Polycias, Phalaenopsis, Dendrobium, croton, Diefenbachia, Bougainvillea, Calladium, Philodendron, etc. My mom's flower shop lasted about 35 years, which they eventually decided to close recently.

I attribute my love for the arts to both my parents but my interest in plants, I definitely inherited from my mom. Even at the peak of their latest business, my mom never lost her love for plants and gardens. Our own house would have an array of potted plants, even if the space did not allow it. When we transferred to a bigger house and had the luxury of a small rooftop garden, it was she who made it her pet project. Even when I became to be the main plant person in the house (filling up the old garden with new collectible plants), it was still my mom who made it sure the plants were healthy and the garden well maintained. Now that she is gone, I will be the sole person to take care of her plants. I can tell that the garden misses her presence. I will miss her so, but i will try to let her memory live on in me and the garden.