Climbing Carnivore

The stereotypical image of carnivorous plants is the Venus flytrap in 'Little Shop of Horrors'. But most serious plant hobbyist would already know that 'plant carnivores' are far from that monster plant portrayed in the movie. They are never aggressive and most of the time their appetite only extends to insects and very minute animals. There are far more dangerous plants with potent poisons and toxins which should be feared more by people. But most plant collectors have avoided keeping these carnivorous plants mainly because they are harder to keep and maintain in a typical city garden.

I particularly have tried to rear carnivorous plants, from the simple pitcher plant (Nepenthes spp.) to the much aspired Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). I was successful in some occasions to emulate the very humid to almost bog-like environment needed to cultivate them. Once I already got one species of Nepenthes to even flower. But when the summer months came, these plants were one of the first plants to suffer in my dry full-sun garden. Now I have completely given up keeping any of these carnivores.

But it is very much possible to keep some of the simpler pitcher plants in an urban garden. This afternoon I went to my friend Ronald's garden and saw his Nepenthes growing new pitchers. He has kept his plant on a driftwood with a lot of other epiphytes. The Nepenthes is benifitting from the humidity created from proximity to other plant species. In turn the plant developed new pitchers to trap insects and harness their animal protein.

The Philippines has about a score of Nepenthes species and probably a few Droseras. The Philippine Native Plant Conservation Society came out with a limited run poster featuring Philippine pitcher plants. This was one of the last projects Leonard Co did as president of PNPCSI.

To Cocomangas Farm

This one is also from my backlog.

A few months ago, members of the Philippine Native Plant Conservation Society were invited to go visit Reynold Sioson's farm in San Miguel, Bulacan. Rey is a native tree afficionado and has planted his family's property with native species which he has collected and propagated from his trips to different parts of the country. He calls his farm Cocomangas (I forgot to ask him why). The sprawling property is presently still largely open area and grassland, but certain portions he have already planted with native tree species seedlings. The seedlings are now a few feet tall but when and if they reach their full height potentials, Rey would have a forest in his backyard. Hopefully he could nurture these young trees and plant more indigenous trees.

In one part of Cocomangas, there was a natural creek where water still flows and is retained. The banks of these wet area are still covered by the natural flora of Bulacan. Here you find remnants of the Bulacan vegetation like kamingi (Ixora philippinensis), balinawnaw (Lepisanthes fruticosa), salimbagat (Caparris micracantha), putat (Barringtonia racemosa) and some others. Rey makes sure that this area would stay the same and has propagated them to give away. A few of us members of PNPCSI has already benefitted from his generosity. We went home with bags of tree seedlings and a big smile in our faces.

To Reynold Sioson, a long overdue gratitude for your hospitality. I still have the samuyaw seedling I owe you.

Hoya Mail Anyone?

I collect a lot of stuff but never stamps. I figured that this and coins would always be a never ending collection. When I was younger I got into coins and it continued on till maybe when I was in college. But I as far as I could remember I never really considered stamp collecting as a hobby I could go into.

This afternoon though, I found myself making the trip to the Lawton post office. This was not my first time inside the Neo-Classic edifice. But it was the first time I went into their philatelic section. The reason: the Philippine Post Office finally issued stamps featuring Philippine hoyas.

I used to seriously collect Hoyas to the point that I had about 50 to 60 varietes in my garden. Now they are reduced to handful of pots, as they have taken the back seat in my collection. Probably my most cherished hoya is the H. halconensis which was given to me by Nahdanielle Simonnson of Sweden which she collected from Mt. Halcon in 2006. My 2 pots which came from a pair of cuttings have produced numerous propagations which went to quite a number of Hoya collectors. Hoya may be gone physically from my garden but somehow it still holds a special place in my heart. So I decided to make that trip to the Lawton main post office to get me a set of the Hoya stamps.

I do not know the basics of stamp collecting but I was given a crash course by Lawrence Chan, whom I have known because of hoyas. Lawrence, as far back in 2003 was pushing to have the Post Office issue Philippine hoya stamps. Finally his wish was granted, after about 8 years. And he was so happy to bring us the good news. It is also timely that they went out this year as more people are now aware of hoyas as a garden ornamental. There are about 60 to 70 (and still counting) Hoya species native to the Philippines and only about 10 percent were included in the set.

I bought 4 separate items. There were 2 kinds of stamp sheets issued. The regular edition spread included Hoyas obscura, mindorensis, benitotanii and carnosa. The collector's edition had Hoyas mutiflora, cumingiana, imperialis, siariae and buotii. There were also the stamped first issue envelops (one for each edition) to commemorate the stamp's day of issue. The envelops also had printed pictures of Hoyas namely H. publicalyx and H. odorata. As any other, these Hoya stamps have a limited run meaning they are only available while supply last. So if you are a collector, stamps or hoya, you might want to go make the trip to Lawton and get your copy.

Remembering My Mom

Today is my mom's 2nd year death anniversary. In a few more minutes, it will be Mothers' Day. Just a month ago I lost a few things owned by mom when someone picpocketed my wallet in the MRT. They were things I really cherished. But the loss would never compare to my mom's departure from this world a couple of years ago. I really miss her.

But she is always remembered. The other day our cook Edison was telling me how he remembers my mom hating my plants. My mom loves plants. She was instrumental in my loving plants in general. She hated my plant choices - she just did not like the spines and thorns in most of the plants I keep (I have kept Agaves, Sansevierias and Euphorbia species even before I got to love native plants). She was of course right as I usually get a lot of puncture wounds from just plain gardening. I still hear her nagging in my mind, how I have to be careful in handling my succulents. She is probably happy that I am shifting to lesser-thorned plants especially orchids which she really loved.

To my mom, a very happy Mothers' Day! My garden misses you. We miss you very dearly.

Pinoy Aquatics!

Before I created this blog, I used to be the moderator of a yahoogroups about the planted tank hobby called pinoyaquatics. Its members were hobbyists keeping planted aquariums. I personally kept planted tanks for almost 10 years till exactly about two years ago, when my mom passed away. My old aquaria are now dried up and collecting dust in one corner of our bodega. But remnants of my old aquatic garden are now planted in pots and tubs in our roofdeck.

Yes, an aquarium garden is tangible. These are real live plants kept garden-style inside an aquarium, submerged under water with live fish. It is possible and it has evolved from a mere hobby to a science of keeping balance within the system. People keeping one are transformed into water gardeners, maintaining the plants green, trimming them and fertilizing them. Just keeping the different plant and fish species healthy is a real challenge.

Today I passed by SM-Annex and chanced upon a fish show (sorry I forgot to confirm which group it was that mounted the fish exhibit). I was not anymore magnetized by the different fishes. But what was hard ignoring were the different planted aquaria aligned on a very long table. I was not the only person attracted by the calm serene water landscapes contained in each glass tank. I could see there were more people viewing the plantscapes than the pure fish displays.

Two years later, The hobby science has already elevated into an artform. The plant-scaping have gone a long way, very far from what I could remember were done by most hobbyists a couple of years ago. The iwagumi style promoted by Takashi Amano is still evident in some but somehow the Dutch-chopsuey style which most Pinoy hobbyists were used to are now very much muted. And in some tanks, the native plants we experimented on were now included into the species mix (Ronald, your Eleocharis spp. are in some tanks]).

Kudos to the new breed of aquatic 'hardineros'! May you nurture the hobby and make it richer for years to come!

A Fight to Survive!

I am posting the poster for the Philippine Native Plant Conservation Society meeting this weekend. This is a call for other people sharing the same cause of saving our diverse Philippine flora.

Personally I am not sure on how this fight for our forests' survival should go. Should we let these plants go into mainstream landscaping and gardening so they could be propagated but at the cost of making them extinct in the forest? Should we document and let them be known to other people so that they'll know what to further crave and collect from the wild? Should we let them be and let natural death or the logger's chainsaw take their courses and allow them be cut without knowing their identity. Should we leave them alone and never know that they have existed at all? Tough questions to ask? I do not know the answer. But this is a start, a venue to be heard collectively, an avenue to start the journey with people with the same passion.

The Antipolo Tipolos

We know where Antipolo is. But did you know that it was named after a tree? I mentioned the antipolo tree and its town namesake in two of my earlier blogs. Actually the name Antipolo was derived from a tipolo tree. Tipolo or pakak is Artocarpus blancoi, very much related to the langka, rimas and kamansi. There was supposed to be a lot of tipolo trees in the area and as any town with an abundance, it was chirstened An-tipolo. Eventually tipolo was also morphed into antipolo, the tree is now also called antipolo, this time after the town.

When I started my thesis I did not know what the tipolo looked like. Since Antipolo was named after it, I figured it was the best place where I could find one. And I was not disappointed as I found a few trees in the Antipolo Church compound. My first images of this tree came from specimens lining the perimeter walls of the famous landmark.

I cherished that first sighting as I thought that tipolo trees were rare elsewhere. But eventually towards the blatter part of my thesis, I realized that the endemic tipolo is still fortunate to be found in other parts of the archipelago. Though they are not literally abundant, their presence is still felt in a lot of islands from Ilocos to Palawan and Bohol. But I still look forward to seeing the Antipolo Church tipolos everytime I passed by there.

Last Holy Week I got to see the tipolo trees once again. The Antipolo church compound has changed since the last time I saw it, but the tipolo trees have remained the same as I remember them. But it also reminded me why these trees are still standing there.

That particular day they provided much needed shade to churchgoers, protection from the scorching heat - the very purpose trees do in a landscape. The particular church trees are there because they have become a vital part of the church grounds - the built environment. A majority of the wooded parts of Antipolo were already converted into subdivisions. The old tipolo trees which the old folks found and named the town after are probably long gone, cut to make way for houses and buildings. Hopefully like the church tipolos, new tipolos would be planted into the town landscape so that this important tree would not be missed here. Hope Antipolo would never have to run out of tipolos. May they find the real importance of these trees in their environment.