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Tropical Flora: Part 1 -- Flowers

3/29/2015

Camp Lookout, Valencia, Negros Oriental, Philippines

Last weekend we went up the mountains to Silliman University's Writers Village in Camp Lookout in Bongbong, Valencia. It is a beautiful and cool retreat from hot, hectic seaside Dumaguete City. Though tropical plants and flowers are around us all the time, the garden there got me to stop and really notice the flowers and plants. I saw so many crazy flowers and captured some in photographs. (Beware: one photo contains some very suggestive plant sex and an imminent bug death.) I understand the botanists' urge to name and classify plants and flowers, because just after admiring a flower's beauty up close, I wanted to know more about it. Below are a small sample of some of the spectacular flora of the Philippines. Enjoy!

Heliconia rostrata
hanging lobster claw
Camp Lookout
There are hundreds of Heliconia species, most of which are native to Central and South America. The Helconia rostrata, one of the most common Heliconia, is native to Bolivia, Columbia, Peru, and Ecuador. I wonder if the Spanish brought it over in the 17th or 18th century? Maybe an eccentric botanist in Lima hopped a ship to Acapulco, Mexico with some rostrata rhizomes and then stowed away in the galleon of one of the many ships carrying goods between Acapulco and Manila. I'm just imagining, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's true.
More info: Hawaiian Plants & Flowers

Heliconia wagneriana, Heliconia caribaea, 3rd: unidentified...
Camp Lookout

More info: The Heliconia Society of Puerto Rico

Clerodendrum paniculatum
pagoda flower
Camp Lookout
This burst of color in the shape of a big cone is native to Asian tropics. In Western scientific study, it "was first described in 1767 by the 'father' of modern biological nomenclature--the Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus. The species epithet refers to the large 'paniculate' clusters of flowers (inflorescences), the feature which makes this such a visually-striking plant."

More info: Kew Royal Botanic Gardens

Etlingera elatior - ginger flower or red torch ginger - Camp Lookout

The first time I saw one of these flowers, I think my eyes nearly popped out of my head. Yowza, what a creation! It's four to five inches across, and befitting its appearance, sometimes goes by the name of wax flower or porcelain flower. It belongs to the Zingiberaceae family, which includes the ginger root plant that we eat. The ginger flower is also used in some cuisines in Southeast Asia, while the leaves and flower have medicinal benefits.
More info: National Tropical Botanical Garden

Zingiber zerumbet - shampoo ginger
Dumaguete garden

This plant's flower head (both photos are of the same species, the red one is more mature than the green) is also part of the ginger or Zingiberaceae family. It's a big family! There are 53 genera and over 1,200 species. The coolest thing about this species is that you can wash your hair with it. The sap from the mature red head is called awapuhi and can be used as a shampoo or conditioner. I've also seen many of the red ones with hungry ants crawling all over them--the sap must be delicious. Humans can drink it too, if you're short on water.
More info: Ray Baker and Lyon Arboretum, Univ. of Hawaii

Hymenocallis littoralis
spider lily
Camp Lookout
This lovely was found just hanging out la-dee-da along a walking path that the local residents take up and down the mountain. (The paved road goes zig-zag up and thus is longer.)
There appears to be about twelve different things going on with this flower's design, but it all comes down to one purpose: come and spread my pollen.

More info: Encyclopedia of Life

Calliandra haematocephala - powder puff tree
Camp Lookout

Yes, it's called a powder puff! The raspberry-looking pods are the flower buds, not the fruit. Ever wonder what an argument between botanists looks like? Well, the powder puff "was formerly included in the legume or pea family, but has recently been shifted into the mimosa family," according to the Missouri Botanical Garden, a surprisingly good source of information on tropical plants. (Missouri's climate is not tropical! At least not yet...) The species name Calliandra comes from the Greek word for kallos meaning beauty, and andros, which means stamen. This was by far the coolest flower I saw near Camp Lookout.

More info: Missouri Botanical Garden

Euphorbia milii
crown of thorns
Camp Lookout
This thorny plant is not a cactus; it's a succulent. Although the mottled flowers and menacing stems don't have the delicate design of the spider lily or the flashy color of the Heliconias, it's a popular garden plant. After noticing it at Camp Lookout, I came home to realize I've been walking right by a bunch of these blooming in planters in front of our neighbors' homes. My new motto: Stop and smell the Euphorbia! Ouch.
More info: Missouri Botanical Garden

Passiflora manicata - red passion flower
Camp Lookout

While Wikipedia has some uncited comments that the "passion" of this flower's name refers to the "'passion' of Jesus in Christian theology"--i. e. the petals, radial filaments, and other flower parts have symbolic meanings related to his crucifixion--I think the passion of this red flower speaks for itself. The scarlet color, the so-extra stigma? Please. In attracting a pollinating insect, this flower is about as sexy as it gets. The hungry praying mantis sure knows that the pistil of a passion flower is an excellent spot to hang out. Yikes!

Bougainvillea
Camp Lookout (photos 1-5) Dumaguete garden (photos 6 & 7)

I end with the flower that is everywhere in the tropics. It's not just in gardens, but along roads, in fences and hedgerows, even trying to cover ugly cement walls. It's taken for granted like a Midwestern wildflower, but often the only beauty around. It's a wall of streaming color, a burst of delight. It comes in fuchsia, red, pink, purple, lavender, and white. (I've included the picture of an orange one that I think belongs in this family--if I'm wrong, let me know in the comments, please.) It grows as a tree, a bush, or a vine.

Like many tropical flowers in the Philippines, it is said to be a native of Latin America. It was "discovered" in Brazil by a French botanist in 1768, but, as is often the case, got named for the boss of the expedition. In a surprising historical twist, a female botanist disguised as a man on the trek may have been the true "discoverer." Like many things that become popularized, it's gotten away from the experts, the botanists and exacting classifiers. They can't agree on the number of species anymore because there are so many hybrids--in the wild and in gardens--that science can't keep track.

After our trip to Camp Lookout, we visited a spectacular private garden here in Dumaguete. This home is surrounded by plants of all sizes and shapes, landscaped with the artistry of a master gardener. The only showy flower the gardener grows is a small bush that contains three plants of this genus grafted together: branches of pink flowers, orange flowers, and variegated leaves. In the architecture of her garden, this plant is a flame of beauty.

The grafted bougainvillea bush in the middle of otherwise green is a perfect place to pause: my next post will be about the garden plants of the tropics.

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Barangay Ball

3/25/2015

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Valencia, Negros Oriental, Philippines

Basketball rules in the Philippines. Other sports are popular--there's an empty field close by our house and some late afternoons I notice people out there playing volleyball on a jerry-rigged net and court. There are swim teams at the pool where I swim, and next to it a track where I see people running circles around youngsters kicking a soccer ball in the grassy center field. And the tennis courts across the street from the pool are filled in the afternoons.

But basketball rules. Filipinos have their own professional leagues and Filipinos religiously follow the NBA. My mother-in-law has an enormous DVD box-set of the San Antonio Spurs' past seasons that she watches over and over. Though she's a Filipino-American living in L.A., she was a fan of the game before she ever came to the U.S.

Some schools have gyms with wooden courts, or like New York City parks, outdoor cement or asphalt courts. Local governments build basketball facilities for their cities or towns. The basketball court is one of the centers of social life for the youth. The better the economic situation of the town, or at least the local government's connections, the better the basketball facilities. The well-off have large covered courts so the games can continue through the otherwise game-stopping sunny or rainy afternoons. Out in the countryside or in poor neighborhoods, the backboards and hoops are a bit more ingeniously hobbled together.

On a hot afternoon in rural Siquijor a few weeks ago, Joseph and I walked by a make-shift hoop next to a family's house. The backboard was constructed of old ill-fitting boards and the rim was obviously a home-made iron hoop, now all rusted and barely hanging on. I thought it looked like a country cartoon of a basketball goal. Oh, how quaint, I thought, an old abandoned basketball hoop. Late in the afternoon, when we walked by again, the court was filled with boys and girls from the area shooting hoops.

This past weekend, we were up in the nearby mountains for a cool retreat from the heat. Our camp was located near the end of a paved road and there were maybe ten houses nearby, enough to make a small barangay. On Saturday we walked down the road and realized we were in the "center" of town. Across from the single sari-sari store--the window of a house to buy things like a Coke, a bag of patis, or a piece of candy--there were two basketball hoops off to the side of the paved road. The backboards, mounted on standing tree trucks, were an elaborate construction of angled boards and branches. The construction of the hoops was note-worthy, but most significant was that this town, as small as it was, had two hoops--a full court! Later that afternoon, I walked by and two young guys were out playing one-on-one.

The next night, around dusk, I was sitting on the porch of our cabin. From down the hill, I heard the sounds of a basketball bouncing on pavement and a lively game in action. Through the trees I could see that the local game had picked up many players and observers on this cool Sunday evening. Everybody was out for an evening of barangay ball.

Basketball has a long history in the Philippines. Rafe Bartholomew, a tall white American guy who spent three years in the Philippines and wrote a book called Pacific Rims, claims that basketball is the enduring legacy of the American colonization in the early 20th century. In an interview at the Asia Society in New York, Bartholomew shared a bit about the popularity of the sport in the Philippines:

I think the reason why it [basketball] is so embedded in people's lives there is it was the first team sport that was widely accessible and popular. . . Basketball was introduced there by the US colonial government in 1910. They made it part of the physical education curriculum in the public school system. They built playgrounds, they built the YMCA in Manila and so in that way, the game was promoted.

One of the interesting things is that they [the US government] tried harder to promote baseball because if you think about what period it was, in the 1920s and '30s, baseball was really thought of as the national pastime. Basketball didn't really come into its own until probably the '60s or '70s, but in the Philippines, it was already huge. In the first Olympics to have basketball as a medal event in 1936, the Philippines only lost one game and it was to the United States. They beat everybody else and it was only because of a scheduling quirk that they didn't get a medal.

Those early successes coincided with the time when idea of the Philippines as a nation was sort of coming into its own also. The Philippine-run part of the Philippine government was starting to try and convince people that they were part of this larger nation. Not "I'm Cebuano" or "I'm Ilocano" or "I'm Ilonggo"—not just part of their regional identity. They were trying to convince people that they were Filipino, and basketball was one of the things that people had in common across different geographical regions and linguistic regions. There are more than 100 distinct languages spoken in the country, so it is still a challenge to get people to break out of the sort of regional mindset. Basketball, and probably Catholicism, are two of the things that are most successful at crossing all of those boundaries.

It was also because they were so good at it first. People really took pride in it. And over the years, over the generations, parents would teach their kids basketball and they would teach their kids basketball, and it just sort of multiplied over time.

Bartholomew's book is entertaining and intriguing, not only from a basketball perspective, but also because of his insights into Filipino culture through the lens of basketball. I've read the first chapter already and can't wait to read more.

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The Tarsiers of Bohol

3/13/2015

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Loboc, Bohol, Philippines

This crouching big-eyed bug eater is a tarsier. She's your distant cousin, if you can believe it.

One of the smallest known primates on earth, full-grown tarsiers are no bigger than an adult human's hand. They get their name from the long tarsus bones of their hind legs. They are closely related to lemurs, and are often mistakenly called small monkeys.

Their big eyes help them spot insects at night--they're the only known insectivorous primates. And unlike other primates, their eyes don't move in their sockets, but tarsiers can swivel their heads a full 180 degrees.

Because tarsiers are nocturnal, when I visited this reserve in Bohol in the sunny afternoon, most of the tarsiers were sleeping in the shade--and maybe a bit annoyed to be bothered by a bunch of noisy picture-taking tourists.

For 45 million years, tarsiers have lived in tropical forests, but even up to fifteen years ago, it was estimated by the Philippine Tarsier Foundation that only 700 tarsiers were left in the Philippines. Tarsiers are an endangered species mostly because of habitat loss due to human deforestation. Cats are also a big enemy of the tarsier, claims the Foundation's Carlito Pizzaras, also known as the Tarsier Man. Finally, because tarsiers are so darn cute, some people still try to illegally capture and keep them as pets, even though most die in captivity.

I was able to see and learn about tarsiers in a net-enclosed forest at the Tarsier Conservation Area in Loboc. There are a couple other spots on the island of Bohol that legally keep tarsiers in protected natural habitat. All are doing more to educate tourists and the local population alike about tarsier conservation and habitat preservation. The Philippine Tarsier Foundation even has a program for volunteers to work at their tarsier sanctuary for a week or two. Sounds like a great field trip for an environmental science class.

Information for this article was taken from the following online sources. If you're interested in learning more about tarsiers, please click on the links.

Copyright © David Rohlfing and Fish Sauce, 2015. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material, including photos and text, without expressed and written permission from this blog's author/owner is strictly prohibited.

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The Amazing Green Mango

3/10/2015

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Dumaguete City, Philippines

It's hard for me to say which I like more in the Philippines: a sweet ripe mango or a crisp, tart green mango. For its refreshing novelty, the green mango wins hands down.

Like Thais, Filipinos eat green mangoes shredded as a salad. Often a green mango salad includes shrimp, red onion, and chilies, all dressed with vinegar and fish sauce. One restaurant Joseph and I went to served green mangoes chopped with salted egg. (See the purple eggs in the Market post.) Pinoys typically add bagoong, shrimp paste, to their green mango salad. And of course, in the land of the pig, it's not unheard of for a green mango salad to arrive to your table sprinkled with fried pork belly or chicharones. Green mango can be pickled and served as a condiment (to pork, of course.) And green mango shakes are also common, but these are still on my list of things to try. In my humble tourist opinion, the most amazing use for the green mango is as a snack: wedges of green mango eaten in the middle of the afternoon.

On the sidewalk outside of most schools, cart venders sell all sorts of snacks for students at dismissal time. It still surprises me how healthy most of these snacks are, given what I've seen of American students' snacking behavior when they have a couple of extra bucks and a candy store across from their school. Here in Dumaguete, most of the snacks being sold outside of schools are relatively nutritious: garlic roasted peanuts, fried fish balls, and green mango wedges. (There are a couple less-healthy options too: jello shakes, for instance. And, bananaques, as Joseph calls glazed fried bananas, strike a questionable balance between good-for-you fruit and greasy-sweet junk. Yes, I've eaten one.)

On afternoons that I walk to my local pool to swim, I pass by two different green mango carts. For five pesos, about eleven cents, I get a bag of green mango wedges and my choice of toppings: a spoon of chili spiked salt, a splash of vinegar or soy sauce, and a dollop of bagoong. I usually ask for vinegar with a little salt.

Sometimes I find myself thinking about my future self back home inNew York City. I wonder what life will be like without green mango snacks in the middle of the afternoon? Maybe I'll leave teaching completely and set up a green mango cart on the corner of Hester and Forsyth in New York City. I'll sell bags of green mango wedges to hungry students for fifty cents a pop.

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Escape to the Tropics

3/6/2015

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The New York Times reports more snow on the East Coast of the United States. Friends’ Facebook and Instagram posts from Dallas and Kentucky show children building carrot-nosed snowpeople and dogs in snowshoes. In the first week of March. Obviously I don’t need to elaborate on the seemingly interminable winter many of you are enduring. Rest assured that I feel lucky to have dodged the giant snowball of 2015, and I hope today’s post is a pasalubong to get you through the dregs of winter.

Whether you realize it or not, we all have access to one of the best seasons on the planet: mango season. That’s right, as I sit here eating a honey-sweet, velvety Philippine mango, there are shipping containers from Peru and Mexico unloading boxes and boxes of tropical goodness into your ports right now. So do yourselves a favor, North American snow folks, go eat a mango.

The Philippines is in the height of mango season. Many people tell me that mangoes are actually available year-round here, but that doesn’t stop me from eating one almost every day like they're about to disappear. These gloriously yellow mangoes are perfectly-sweet and perfectly-textured. Do you think I'm exaggerating? These are mangoes, the most supreme of all fruits. Supreme supreme, not, one year supreme, eh, the next year mealy and bland like peaches.

The Kalabaw (Carabao) mango dominates the market here in the Philippines and is long and flatter than many other mangoes. Best of all, it has relatively less fiber around the seed. Though the Philippines doesn’t export a lot of fresh Carabao mangoes to the U.S. yet (up until October 2014, the U.S. had import restrictions on Philippine mangoes because of concerns about invasive insects), you may begin to see more of them in your produce markets soon.

Luckily, this common Filipino variety, which originated in India, is grown elsewhere in the world and is called the Ataulfo mango. It is sometimes also marketed as a Honey, Champagne, or Manila mango. Tons and tons of Ataulfos have been shipped from Mexico in the last few weeks, so you may be able to find one in your grocery store or fruit stand the next time you shop.

The Philippines has schooled me on how a superior mango should taste and I’ve read a lot about mangoes online. I know you’ve been busy dodging black ice and shoveling snow, so here are some tips to help you pick a good mango the next time you’re at the grocery store.

1. Get to know the best mango varieties. Ataulfo, Kent and Keitt are solid. The Haitian mango—also a buttery yellow mango, but bigger than Ataulfo—has a short stellar season to watch for from late-spring to early-summer. The Alphonso from India is considered by many to be one of the best in the world.

Check out The Mango Maven. She offers some helpful insight into her favorites and each mango variety’s features.

2. Avoid Tommy Adkins mangoes.
They don’t taste as sweet and well, mangoey, as others. And worse, they’re really fibrous. Unfortunately, they were one of the first varieties of mango to enter the U.S. market because they shipped well and looked good in the grocery stores. (They play into the "red fruit equals delicious" trap many unknowing humans have fallen victim to over the ages.) They’re also grown by our nearest neighbors, Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, so they’re everywhere in the U.S. Unless you’re making a smoothie, it’s best to skip the Tommy Adkins. And Hadens are hit-or-miss, according to the Mango Maven.

3. Get to know how each mango variety looks and feels when ripe. Most often a ripe mango skin will show small wrinkles, starting around the stem. Don’t judge ripeness just by color. With some varieties, Kent mangoes are an example, the skin will still be partly green even when ripe.

4. Finally, try to find out where your mango was grown. If the country-of-origin is not labeled, ask your grocer and look for crops that are in season. If you want to be hard-core about tracking mango imports, check out the National Mango Board’s Crop Report. (There are also some excellent lessons for math teachers in this document!) The Crop Report tells you the estimated and actual mango imports from countries in the Caribbean and Americas. (Sadly, India, Pakistan, the Philippines and other Asian importers aren’t represented in this trade group--though my source tells me that almost all mangoes from India and Pakistan that make it to the U.S. are yummy.)

The most recent February 27th Crop Report shows that Ataulfo mangoes from Mexico should be in grocery stores right now. (The report has all sorts of details: eight shipping containers of mangoes arrived to New York from Peru on Feb 18th. You can extrapolate that if 95% of Peruvian imported mangoes are Kents, chances are New Yorkers are probably getting a bunch of Kents!) You’ll also see that 94% of Guatemala’s mangoes are Tommy Adkins mangoes. Sorry, Guatemala.

So, snow-weary friends and family, I hope that this mango buying and eating information has been helpful. Remember that even in the worst of times, somewhere in the world it is mango season. If you can’t escape to the tropics, go eat a mango.

How to Cut a Mango: Hedgehog Style

1. Hold the mango lengthwise on its edge and cut the sides off. The stone should be left in the middle. (Meet neighbor E.J. Born in El Paso, this Texan-American-Filipino child is going to school in his mother's homeland.)

2. Cut a grid in the flesh of the fruit--try not to cut through the skin.

3. Flip the skin concave to reveal easy-to-munch, -spoon, or -slice bits of pure mango.

What about that middle section with the stone?

Get messy! If you're lucky, a friend or family member will like chewing on the stone. Otherwise, use a knife to trim the remaining sweet fruit from the stone

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Tropical Flora: Part 1 -- Flowers

Camp Lookout, Valencia, Negros Oriental, Philippines

Barangay Ball

Valencia, Negros Oriental, Philippines

The Tarsiers of Bohol

Loboc, Bohol, Philippines

The Amazing Green Mango

Dumaguete City, Philippines

Escape to the Tropics

How to Cut a Mango: Hedgehog Style

Traveling Words

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