Casa Asinas!

Finally, I got to see the famed house (among plant collectors) of Mike Asinas! After numerous invitations to come, I finally got the time (synchronized with Mike of course) to brave the South Luzon traffic to San Pablo, Laguna. The long travel was compensated by Mike with the warm reception to his small kingdom, flanked with old recycled wood and very interesting plants. Mike is a horticulturist, thus his garden is not confined to native species. His collections also included a number of beautiful exotic species. But slowly he said he was trying to incorporate the good native trees and landscape worthy plants he could get his hands on. FYI: Mike is one of the proponents why ALI is now using native species in its developments. More power to you, Mike!

Mike's house is actually a conservationist's dream. It is an ancestral type bahay-na-bato which he spotted in another town in Laguna. He had it transferred piece by piece on his family's compound in San Pablo, where it now stands as the lot's centerpiece. To compliment the architecture he collected a number of old wood furniture for the house's interiors and integrated some rustic Filipino relics into its surrounding landscape. And as the garden's focal points where different flowering trees like kalachuchi, bagawak, etc mounted with different staghorn ferns (Platyceriums) and dapos (Aspleniums).

I never realized Mike's abode is such a jewel (when he first gave his invite). Visitors are virtually transported back in time as one ascends up to the main porch area. When you get inside the house you'll get amazed with the intricate detail of the mouldings and Mike's old wood furniture collection. He had some pieces which are authentic with stories and histories attached to them. Some were reproductions, which he painstakingly assembled from old and new wood, bearing in mind the different grains, colors and textures of the different timber species. Mike mentioned a lot of balayong (or some people call tindalo) but other woods carved into the tables, chairs, cabinets, etc were molave, kamagong, narra, and a lot more I could not anymore remember.

Personally I did not expect to find a rich plethora of heritage pieces on this trip. I was expecting to find just a specimen of batikuling (Litsea leytensis) which Mike promised me some time ago. Instead I got treated to a nostalgia of sorts as I had my camera taking snaps of every detail I could see and feast my eye and lens on. Probably took more pictures of the house than the trees surrounding it. To Mike, again my many thanks for opening up your house to me and my sister, Cecil. I can't wait to go back and explore the surrounding lakes of San Pablo next time!

Casa San Pablo and the Shingle Plant

Is it obvious that I am catching up on my blogging? Sometime in February I was invited by Mike Asinas to visit his San Pablo house which I finally did. But before we could reach his fabled house, we passed by Mike's friend's inn, the very quaint Casa San Pablo. It is a very charming bread and breakfast type establishment with very cozy rooms and casitas. The ambience is very rustic and the landscape is undeniably country-styled.

I was then with my sister Cecil (she gave me a ride) and she was in picture taking mode (as in me taking pictures of her as model against the picturesque Casa San Pablo background). Well, sometimes we have to be a good brother, hehehe, so I did take her photos. She wanted me to take pictures of her in the private house, the typical rooms, the gardens, the kitchen and even the dining hall. My sister was really picture-crazy that day! Last, she asked me to take pictures of a plant she found to be weird (as if I needed prompting from her, knowing it is a plant).

What my sister fancied was the very unique aroid, the shingle plant or Rhapidophora sp. I was told it is also a native of the Philippine forest. This very interesting plant is a climber which will grow like its namesake, imbricate on the climbed surface. The arranged leaves are very attractive on very healthy plants, which could effectively adorn a very plain wall. Vigorous specimens could climb a 2 storey house's plain empty siding. The shingle plant certainly brightened up the plain walls in Casa San Pablo. It also took the attention off Cecil in her pictures... hehehe (she' ll kill me!!!)!

It is U. P. Flowering Season!

A few weeks ago I went around UP again with Cel Tungol. Cel was of course on bird watching mode hoping to find and glimpse on the more elusive bird species, including a pair of peregrine falcons frequenting a communications tower on campus. I, on the other hand, was hoping to find time to sketch a few plants around the oval ,which I did. It helped me get motivated to do the drawings as a lot of the plants were in flower. I got to pen in 2 plants in my itsy bitsy plant notebook.

The first I found to draw was Terminalia microcarpa or the familiar sounding kalumpit. This is very much related to the talisay (T. catappa), hence the flower of kalumpit appear to be smaller version of the talisay's. The tree located behind the Biology pavilion at the back of Palma Hall was profusely in bloom as seen in the accompanying picture. I was once told that the kalumpit flowers have a slight stink in it, similar to cat feces. I could attest that this is partly true, but it is not as bad as it sounds, much more tamed than a kalumpang's.

Plant no. 2 is Dracaena angustifolia or malasambal which was also in bloom that week with erect yellow inflorescence spikes. This on the other had I believe is very fragrant (but not sure if only at night). I once smelled the flowers of this in a private garden and I could recall it having a very pleasing smell. Though the plants behind Palma hall had flowers, they were in the late stages before falling off. Thus I did not get to smell them in their prime and glory moment.

A plant we also saw but dared not to get close to, even if it was too tempting to sketch, was a suspected lipang kalabaw or Dendrocnide sp. To shoot this one, Cel and I had to go through the back alleys and open lots of the student dormitories. It is actually a surprise for us to even find a big plant within campus, not sure if it is old, either remnant of original QC flora or introduced by Biology students or teachers. The specimen we found was very big, growing and flowering out of a very deep ditch.

The last find of the day was a flowering iba or karmay, Phyllanthus acidus. The plant is very similar to kamias but its fruit is more rounded. The flowers are quite small and could only be appreciated in close up. But the trees we found were in very profuse blooming stage, thus the branches are almost covered with the inflorescence. I am not sure if karmay is native. I asked Ray Ong about it and he said it is a native of tropical Asia including the Philippines.

To cap off our day, we waited for the peregrine falcons to perch on their reported favorite spot. But the falcons had different things in their minds as they were no-shows, to Cel's disappointment. She just had to content herself with the other birds she saw and the flowering trees which did not disappoint us at all.

P.S. Oh and yeah, the narras were in flower too!

Ano ang Amoy ng Sanggumay (What is the Sanggumay's Scent)?

Sorry for the lull in my blogging. I have been busy with work which is starting to become frustrating for me. Anyway, fortunately I have my garden to turn to and plants as a diversion.

Just a quick post for now. In the past few weeks, the native orchid Dendrobium anosmum or populary called sanggumay was and I think is still is in bloom. The pendulous thick stalks of this orchid become borne with flowers ranging from pink to lavender, which is truly a sight to behold when specimens bloom simultaneously. In Sidcor, the weekend market, the sanggumays are very visible and hard to miss. There is also D. anosmum var. Dearei, or the almost pure white flowered sanggumay, which I find a little more subtle in its fragrance.

Incidentally most people regard sanggumay to have a very agreeable scent when in bloom. But to me the fragrance reminds me of cough syrup mixed with an antiseptic solution. It is undeniably fragrant but a bit overpowering, almost similar to chemicals formulated in a laboratory. Well, maybe it is just me. Ronald Achacoso commented that I am the only person he knows who says sanggumay is not entirely fragrant. But then again not all flowers could please everybody, hehehe. But the sanggumay is still a beautiful specimen to keep in the garden, fragrant or not!

The Ant House Dischidia

While trekking in our extreme Zambales adventure, we came across this plant. It is a Dischidia, probably D. pectinoides. It is related to a Hoya, epiphytic and has a unique adaptation. Some of its leaves are balloon-like. They are said to be like this to accommodate colonies for ants to live in. It is a symbiosis developed in nature, where the host plant provides shelter and at the same time the animal provides much needed protection (and in some cases pollination) in return. Another illustration that every organism has a particular role in the forest. Remove it and some other species depending on it may also suffer in the chain reaction.

The Extreme Zambales Landscape

I am neck deep with work for the past 3 weeks. Deadlines were and still are almost a few days apart which has been depriving me of much-needed sleep, rest and recreation. But somehow last weekend I got to surface from it all and joined some members of the PNPCSI and the Taxonomy class of UP Manila in their trip to botanize a certain locality in Zambales. The destination was in the adjacent towns of Botolan and Iba. The goal was to help some students collect herbarium specimens for their Botany class. The proponents were mostly pre-med students trying to hurdle their last few requirements.

Ronald Achacoso was very generous to volunteer his family's property to house the students and their teachers. At the same serve as main collection area for botanical specimens. The Achacoso house was located near an estuarine river thus is a natural depository of flora and fauna suited for mangrove and coastal conditions. It was here that the U.P. students completed their requirements of 20 species (per student). It took them a whole afternoon to scrutinize and scavenge the areas for cuttings and collections to be pressed as herbarium specimens. Of course while the others are busy doing their main business in Zambales, we the PNPCSI members on the other hand tried to explore the adjacent landscape for anything that would tickle our fancy. Most often enough, the sight of interesting plants (and to photograph them) would be enough excitement for us. But in this case, the contrasting appearance from grassy foothills, lahar stricken water beds, tree covered slopes and rocky riversides became our eye candy. Indeed the Zambales landscape is still worthy to explore, despite the obvious signs of exploitation. The seemingly bare mountains (from a distance) have a few more natural wonders still tucked under their sleeves.

After a day and a half of exploration, the students pressed and packed their botanic specimens. They made their way home with a few more exciting stories to tell about their Zambales adventure. They vowed to comeback with a more leisurely pace. Just hope the Zambales mountains would be still there awaiting their return. With the rate of destruction we saw in our short stint, there won't be any wild Zambales to go back to in a few more decades. Let us cross our fingers it won't reach this extreme so we would have more Sambal adventures in the future.

And They Said You Can't Landscape with Philippine Native Plants...

PNPCSI booth

Bonsai Society booth

Yes it has always been possible but not easily realizable. For one, most of the plants we have known in our gardens for as far as we could remember are mostly exotics. Even the plants mentioned in our folk song 'Bahay Kubo' growing in the periphery of the vernacular house are all non-natives. The Spaniards dictated and drove the Indios to plant these common vegetables, all familiar edible fare for the colonizers. And even upto now, colonial mentality is very evident in Philippine gardening as most ornamental plants you find in local gardens are exotic plants. But hopefully that would not be for long.

George Mendoza's booth

This year's Philippine Horticultural Society's Annual Garden Show showcased our lesser known Philippine plant natives in their garden and plant exhibits. Most landscape participants used a significant number of Philippine species in coming up with their innovative and well designed landscape displays. The Philippine Native Plant Conservation Society was privileged to be given a booth to landscape, but among the participants it had the extra goal of using pure native species in its design. I was given the task to do the design and Susan Topacio and her Jardin Isabel team was so generous to execute the booth for the society. With the help of Jun Golamco and the very vigilant PNPCSI members Anthony Arbias, Ronald Achacoso, George Yao, Joey Diaz with Ernie Alvaran, it became possible to exhibit a 100 percent Philippine plant display for the PNPCSI horti booth. The design used hard and geometric accessories to emphasize and contrast the lushness of Philippine green. It was also stressed by the society board to use very little, if not none at all, critically endangered species to promote responsible conservation. So what found their way into the booth were landscape staples like Osmoxylon lineare (miyagos), Podocarpus costalis (maki or igem dagat), Dracaena multiflora (limestone dracaena or false yucca), Carmona retusa (fookien tea), Murraya paniculata (kamuning) and Asplenium nidus (dapo). Lesser popular but also cultivated species like Ardisia squamulosa (tagpo), Canarium sp. (pagsahingan), Schismatoglottis spp. (alapayi), Amophophallus paenifolius (pungapong), Alocasia spp., Syzygium polycephaloides (lipote) and a few more were also thrown into the mix. A (cast resin) replica of the conservation symbol, Rafflesia, was used as the color centerpiece for the PNPCSI greens display.

If I were to be asked, I would call the PNPCSI booth 'At the Edge of the Rainforest'. Honestly since the once impenetrable rainforest is now becoming less and less in area, the forest perimeter, on the other hand, is increasing. Light is slowly being let into the once dark shade of tall canopy trees. So along with the disappearance of the big trees, some plants used to the shady growth are also lost. But others who were stunted by the lack of sunlight are now becoming evident and common. Thus more light loving plants like pioneer trees, brushes and grasses are replacing our rainforests.

So before the Philippine plant species completely vanish, let us hope they find their way into mainstream landscaping and planning. But it should be done properly, by cultivating the said specimens from propagation materials and not collect them straight out of the wild. We hope we in the PNPCSI have put out that proper message in our participation in the horti show. May we see many more beautiful native species, in variety and number, in our Philippine gardens.

To the Philippine Horticultural Society and everyone who helped in staging the PNPCSI display, our very warm gratitude!