I have been fortunate to visit Tokyo in Japan when the cherry blossoms were about to bloom. They do so in the last weeks of March and when I was there for the 15th IUSAM conference last March 10, some cherry blossoms and the slightly smaller plums were already painting the landscape with pink and rose colors.
Though they were still not in their full flowering glory, the early blooming trees were already raved by passers-by. They do not fail to flag down the always rushing Japanese people. Tourists were tempted by the rare opportunity to take snap shots of the delicate looking blossoms.
The week I returned back to Manila from the Japan trip, I was greeted by the same sight, but sadly of a much lesser scale. It was of a sole specimen of
Crateva religiosa or
salingbobog. The tree stands in an old abandoned lot and is in the danger of being cut down for an impending development.
The flowers of salingbobog is profuse and to my opinion is comparable to the cherry blossoms I saw in Tokyo. Today I just talked to Cel Tungol and she said that the tree still has some flowers. So the flowering
of the tree is much longer than its Japanese counterpart. Yet you rarely see the opportunity to view salingbobog's flowering window. Unlike the cherry blossoms in Japan, Crateva religiosa is virtually unknown in Metro Manila. It would be a waste if such a flowering spectacle could not be harnessed in our local gardens.
I have been fortunate to visit Tokyo in Japan when the cherry blossoms were about to bloom. They do so in the last weeks of March and when I was there for the 15th IUSAM conference last March 10, some cherry blossoms and the slightly smaller plums were already painting the landscape with pink and rose colors. 
Though they were still not in their full flowering glory, the early blooming trees were already raved by passers-by. They do not fail to flag down the always rushing Japanese people. Tourists were tempted by the rare opportunity to take snap shots of the delicate looking blossoms. 
The week I returned back to Manila from the Japan trip, I was greeted by the same sight, but sadly of a much lesser scale. It was of a sole specimen of Crateva religiosa or salingbobog. The tree stands in an old abandoned lot and is in the danger of being cut down for an impending development.
The flowers of salingbobog is profuse and to my opinion is comparable to the cherry blossoms I saw in Tokyo. Today I just talked to Cel Tungol and she said that the tree still has some flowers. So the flowering 
of the tree is much longer than its Japanese counterpart. Yet you rarely see the opportunity to view salingbobog's flowering window. Unlike the cherry blossoms in Japan, Crateva religiosa is virtually unknown in Metro Manila. It would be a waste if such a flowering spectacle could not be harnessed in our local gardens.
2 comments:
I stumbled upon your blog while googling for trees that I intend to plant in my small garden. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
It would be nice if we start to cultivate salibongbong. Would you know someone who've collected seeds from this tree?
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