Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Biggest Dao!

Ron sizing up the dao
Have you ever seen a dao this big? I have seen young dao trees and much older ones in Daranak falls, UPLB and in Sorsogon. But to date the one standing in Biak na Bato National Park is the biggest I have seen so far.  I can't even get a picture of the whole tree. It has a very large buttress base appearing like a massive wall. It definitely dwarfed all of my companions who tried to get close to it.

Dao is Dracontomelon dao which is a forest tree that forms huge buttress roots to support its humongous size and thick canopy. It is a member of the family Anacardiaceae, which makes it related to the cashew and mango. I hope this tree will live on for many more years and many-many more generations to come.
Sir George at the base of the magnificent dao

9 comments:

flipster said...

And these are the reasons why we must preserve our heritage and it starts with our environment.

metscaper said...

You said it.

Plant Chaser said...

Galing!

beth said...

hi. very nice, thanks for sharing this marvelous photo of dracontomelon! can you tell the tree age without having to cut crosswise? can we also have this declared as heritage tree? sadly, those declared by malacanang are exotic species.

metscaper said...

I do not know how to determine age without counting the tree rings.

Yes I agree. I am sure this is a witness of historical Biak na Bato events. Worth the heritage tree merit.

Calling mam Susan Aquino Ong!

Reyxe said...

Hi! do you know what are the top 10 largest/tallest NATIVE Philippine trees? thanks po I like your blog very informative.

LewR said...

We also have Dao Tree here in our place, Tuburan, cebu.

Renegade said...

and a really huge one in Maoyon River in Puerto Princesa

Intense Investor said...

The one near cagayan De oro is massive also. I have some pictures.