Flowering Dipterocarp!

Dipterocarps are for me the most legendary trees in the forest. They are the winners in the survival game, outlasting and shadowing the other trees. We often hear the names tangile, yakal, gisok, lauan, bagtikan, all good wood sources and members of the family Dipterocarpaceae. But a majority of us Pinoys might probably die without even knowing what a dipterocarp tree looks like. Even here in my blog and in my thesis, I could only count a handful of dipterocarp accounts. It is probably because it is previously thought that these trees are hard to imagine outside of the rainforest context (but recently trees are being examined for their viability to use as urban trees, will blog about it in the future).

For a city boy like me, it is already a spectacle to see a full grown dipterocarp, much more one in full bloom. And I was lucky to spot the red lauans (as identified by our guide, Noel) in bloom in Mt. Bulusan, Sorsogon. Red lauan is supposedly Shorea negrosensis, ranging from Cagayan to Sorsogon and some islands in the Visayas. It is Philippine endemic. It sure is refreshing to see that a giant red lauan flowers profusely, with proximic specimens blooming simultaneously. I could just imagine the expected seed bounty in the next months. Here is to continuously hoping!