Dangwa Surprise!

We went to Dangwa last week to buy some flowers for the graduation rites. My companions Grace, Meryll and Elle perused through every shop looking for a good bargain for our cut flower needs. While looking at the colorful bevy of cut flowers, we found a few unusual items sold along with the mums, carnations, roses and azucenas. As the three ladies did some haggling, I brought out my camera to take snaps of some of the native curiosities.

Most impressive are the pseudoberries or flowers of Osmoxylon. They are about a foot across. I read somewhere that the flowers of ulo-ulo or Osmoxylon are fruit-like to attract its pollinators, birds.

Another attractive colored find are the fruits of a primitive tree, bago or Gnetum gnemon. The tree is a cross between an angiosperm and a conebearing gymnosperm. The fruits are in clumps and starchy. In Panay, they are roasted by Mangyans and eaten as a vegetable. In Indonesia, the seeds are pounded flat and fried like kropek.

A lot of native pandan fruits also find their way into the racks of Dangwa. Pandan fruits are very varied and odd-shaped. A smaller of the pandan fruits is that of bariu or bariw, which I believe to be Pandanus copelandii. The red and orange clusters are actually made out small kernels. tightly packed together.

A couple of hours more, my companions have managed to procure what we came for. As for me I came home with more than what I expected, a loot of fruits which I plan to experiment with in my garden. Just hope some would manage to germinate and reward me with seedlings after a few months, that is if they do not succumb first to the extreme dryness of this year's El Nino. Here's hoping.

Ideal Icons and Symbols of the University of the Philippines

Yesterday I graduated with a degree - Master of Tropical Landscape Architecture in U.P Diliman. I donned the traditional Filipino barong topped with the maroon and green hablon-weaved sablay. In the university grounds and in the college of architecture, the U.P. colors and familiar symbols filled the air. I sang U.P. Naming Mahal (university hymn) once more. Ironically after 5 years of B.S. Arch and another 5 in MTLA, it was the first time I learned that while singing the hymn, it is proper to do some fist pumping. Doing so reminded me that the ideals of U.P. are usually recognized as passionate and aggressive, thus leading to misconceptions of activism and non-conforming to standards.

Another symbol of the state U is Helianthus anuus, or simply called the sunflower. It has been planted in the early months of each year along University Avenue for as long as I could remember. The blooming of the sunflowers are expected in April or May, hopefully ushering U.P. into the summer season. Befittingly the blooming coincided with this year's university graduation rites. It has been documented that regular sunflower blooms face to the direction where the sun is. They are supposed to follow its path, from east to west. I once heard from Prof. Mary Anne Espina that the U.P. sunflowers are special. They do not face or follow the sunpath. They are therefore said to be very similar to U.P.. students, very non-conformists.

In last year's Lantern Parade, one of the event hosts unwittingly commented that U.P. should adopt the Christmas symbol, Euphorbia pulcherimma or poinsettia (also called Poinsettia pulcherimma), as its mascot plant because of its red and green color (very near the U.P. maroon and green colors). Botanist and U.P. grad. Leonard Co commented that poinsettia would have been a very poor choice to symbolize U.P. The term mascot may have been the right term to use for the poinsettia. Leonard said that the proper symbol plant for U.P. should be a native species, obviously to further strengthen the national pride particularly in the state U. The premier institution should be represented with a very strong formed and charactered plant. It should perfectly display the U.P. colors rather than just approximate the maroon with the red of a poinsettia.

Leonard volunteered a couple of native species as candidates. One is Clerodendrum quadriloculare which would have been a nice addition to the landscape of U.P. Diliman. Bagawak, as it is fondly called, has dark green leaves with dark maroon undersides. garden spectators are usually rewarded with very showy seasonal flowers, which appear in February and March. Plant candidate no. 2 is Leea magnolifolia, which has more architectural form and wider leaves, also with the same green and maroon colors. The plant is very attractive as a foliage plant but the flowers are less flambouyant.

I am not sure if U.P. would even consider to have a plant symbol to represent it. But if it does any of the two native species will make good U.P. plant icons. Each could obviously embody the U.P. character in their aesthetics. They would probably make more better plant reputations than the rebel sunflowers. But in any case the U.P. representation of any plant species is only superficial, compared to the accomplishments that each graduate could accomplish after their life in U.P. These are the true attestments of how great an institution U.P. has become.

Rediscovering my Favorite Ficus

My friend Cissy Canlas is waiting for this post.

Ficus trees are garden favorites. My favorite Ficus tree is a lesser known species called F. sumatrana, which I first saw in the gardens of Tabang, Bulacan. I was searching for kamuning (Murraya paniculata) specimens and accidentally stumbled upon a new Ficus with growth and form similar to a kalamansi. That is why I christened it myself as baleteng-kalamansi. I kept a specimen in my own garden till lately when I thinned out exotic species in favor of native shrubs. Though I was hesitant to let it go, it was eating space much needed for my native plant propagations (as experiment for my thesis). My lone tree went to a friend who was more than happy to take it.

A few months back, I was conversing with botanist Leonard Co about native Ficus and he casually ran down a list of native species. He was uttering Ficus one by one...F. benjamina, caulocarpa, septica, microcarpa ... sumatrana. As soon as I heard sumatrana, my heart skipped a beat. My favorite Ficus is Philippine native... and I already gave away my specimen. I was ready to forego of the plant as my favorite but now that I have learned that it is indigenous, I more than ever would want a specimen. The leaves of F. sumatrana are fine and compact, a very attractive addition to any landscape. I sure could not wait to have one again in my garden.

Looking at the Mehan Garden

A few weeks back I agreed to chaperone MTLA student Mau Chua to the Mehan Garden. The garden is not anymore what it used to be and its reputation has diminished into a halfway place for the homeless. Mau really needed the company to make this ocular. I was willing because the many times I have surveyed the areas of Intramuros and Lawton, I never really examined what there is still left to see in Mehan garden.

I met Mau in LRT Central Station. It took a few minutes before we found each other. Before we did I have already surveyed the remaining flora in the station’s periphery. There were still a few tree remnants of the old Manila landscapes, like talisay (Terminalia catappa), mabolo (Diospyros blancoi) and molave (Vitex parviflora). There were also the weed Ficus trees like tibig (F. nota), dalakit (F. concinna) and hawili ( F. septica).

Finally I found Mau at the station entrance fronting Metropolitan Theater. Since it is both our first time to the Mehan, we did not know how to enter the garden premises. I was told years ago that the entrance to the garden was through the old museum and library. But both are not there anymore. Instead there stands new buildings of a Public college. After a few instructions from surprisingly very visible police personnel, we entered the garden by a small passageway through the school.

I was not expecting much to see in the garden. I was not disappointed, which was the big disappointment. Much of the ground was already eaten up by the public school. One portion was devoted as storage space for some carnival equipment. The remaining garden was not maintained. The traces of landscaping in the garden were cheesy for my taste.

Probably the highlight of the visit was finding two unusual trees. One was betis or Madhuca betis. Though the lone specimen seemd to have withstood the battles of time, the tree still boasts of it golden leaves, very attractive against the predominant green of mahoganies and narra. The second tree was unknown to me. I will try to consult it with some botanist friends to find out what it is.

I heard from some city hall employees that they will be starting revival of the Metropolitan Theater. I pray that this restoration would not be like the previous plans that were just ningas-cogon. Hopefully whatever goodwill they have planned for met theater would spill over to the Mehan. Somehow these parts of our history and culture are just destined to wither to obscurity. But then again it might be better to just let it go with the flow and find more suitable uses for these pieces of real estate. If they do, the city should somehow find the proper people to document the Mehan’s existence, so that even in paper its memory could live on.

A Bright Spot in the Dry and Hot

The dry season did not hinder the Palawan cherries to bloom. Though they are not that profuse as the previous year, some trees in Manila Seedling Bank did manage to bring out their floral displays. Check them out while they are still in flower.

The Alarming Heat

Everyone who keeps a garden would tell you that the dry season is really taking its toll on plants. U.P. is yellow and bare, La Mesa watershed is too dry. The shady Wildlife park is now almost full sun exposure. My favorite Wildlife tree, the katmon, is in danger to die. It's leaves dried up, without the tree shedding it off. I sure hope the rains come soon. If not, more plants might be doomed to the same fate. Sigh!!!

The Tale of Two Trees in Two Cities

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.