A misleading name of a Tree in the Philippines

 

       Pine trees are very special for many Filipinos because they are quite rare in the Philippines. The Filipino folks love seeing these trees, especially on mountains, as they give this temperate or boreal environment-look found in other countries which gives a colder vibe.

      As a tropical country, a cold climate in the Philippines is something everyone wants to experience once in a while. These Pine trees adds to the experience to many Filipinos during vacations.  But if a study would be made about the cooling effect of these trees, they would be easily out favored by the local trees. The native trees with broader leaves receives relative more light than the needles of these pines trees and are thus more effective in giving more shade and reducing the tropical heat.We therefore can conclude that it also misleads Filipinos by giving this false picture of a colder climate.

     

Cook Pine Tree or Norfolk Pine Tree 

      The thing is being  famous, many Filipinos have mistakenly named some of these trees for another species. In Tagaytay, locals sell some of these pine trees. One of these trees are the Cook pine or Araucaria columnaris which they sell as Norfolk pine tree Araucaria heterophylla which is a close cousin but a different species. I have long believed that the local sellers there are indeed correct but after I saw a large tree specimen in Tagaytay, Cavite which had produced cones I had become skeptic of the tree as being A. heterophylla. The morphology of the two species are very much alike indeed but I am now certain that those trees found in Tagaytay and in some places in the Philippines are A. columnaris. After seeing the cones, I am certain that it is indeed the Cook Pine tree. It is common for people, not only in the Philippines, to be confused between these two pine species because of their similarities.

Native pine-looking Tree, Dingalan, Aurora

A False Pine tree

      In contrast, here is a native pine-looking tree in the coastal area of Dingalan, Aurora, Philippines. I initially mistook this tree as a Philippine pine tree but I just found out that these trees are called Agoho, locally and are not the same as the Pinus Kesiya or Philippine pine trees. They are known as Australian pine tree and are not true pine trees. The scientific name is Causarina equisetifolia.

    I thought initially that these false pine trees grow in these low-elevation areas in the Philippines due to the microclimate there of having higher relative humidity.But being an angiosperm instead of conifer explains why they can thrive in low-land areas.

Controversial Carbon dioxide emission of Plants

Araucaria columnaris at Philippine Mountain

   
     It really agitated me after hearing from the BBC documentary, Hot planet, that plants give off Carbon dioxide at night. It's not that I am unaware that plants give off Carbon dioxide too but it is just the way it was said that is worrying me. This is very misleading in my opinion. Anyway, here is the full phrase from the documentary. 

"Trees absorb Carbon dioxide but they release it during the night and when they decompose." 

I don't know if the producer behind this documentary had just taken for granted this very phrase but it is misleading in my opinion. 

Through my years of studying biology, I have always bear in my mind that plants have always been the great changer of our atmosphere. The organisms which absorb the Carbon dioxide emitted by other organisms especially the animals. To me, the phrase sounded that the net total Carbon dioxide absorbed by plants and converted to other compounds is zero. This is like saying or at least some might interpret this, that plants do not change the level of Carbon dioxide in our atmosphere when the net total amount is considered. 

I had researched a little bit about this topic and I found out that plants(including trees) in general do not give off more Carbon dioxide than absorbing them which means they have a large role in maintaining the level of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Normally, plants do absorb more of these Gases but according to studies, plants do rarely produce more Carbon dioxide in certain circumstances like producing many flowers.

The animal without a Scientific name (yet)!

Palawan White Squirrel

I find this squirrel to be very fascinating. This squirrel has an unusual white fur apart from the fact that this species of squirrel can only be found in a small island in the Philippines. It is also fascinating because there are only a few squirrels found on the archipelago yet there is no research being done about this new animal. The squirrel has currently little documentations and another fascinating fact about is that it still have not been given any scientific name to date. It's also intriguing that despite all of this, the squirrel is already poached by many local hunters. It saddens me to know such beautiful animal being extirpated even before it has been given a scientific name.

The glum future of Cavite's biodiversity

     With a mere existing forest area of approximately 86km2out of of the total land area of 1,512.41km of Cavite, the wildlife and the environment on this providence is surely in danger in the next few years. This approximate range gives us 5.6% forest cover. This means that the forest land area in Cavite is only 6% out of the total area of the province. This measurement was done on 2007 which means that the numbers could have declined further.

      This is very much alarming considering the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the province. The less than 6% forest area means so many things. One meaning of this is that the local government of Cavite is not giving any priority to its forest resources if these numbers are indeed correct. If deforestation continues on the province, the less than 6% forest area of the province would surely be extirpated in the next upcoming years if the government would not take measures for these forest areas.

      Cavite Province lies in the western monsoon forest zone which is ideal and suitable for the formation of tropical rainforest. The biodiversity of Cavite is thus very rich. Although there are less than 6% forest area on Cavite, it is very much apparent that there are considerable numbers of groves on the province. An example would be in the municipality of General Trias where abundant animals can be found. Reptiles and birds and a few mammals abound on the town although there are no protected forest area on the said location. The reptiles include geckos, monitor lizards, skinks, and snakes such as pythons and colubrids. The bird biodiversity in the region is by far the most fascinating which includes Kingfishers, herons, barn and typical owls, frogmouths, crakes, canaries, swallows, bitterns and a few more. There are also a few frogs. There were once shrews and civets on the town but they could have been extirpated too because of poaching and destruction of their natural habitat.

      The wild animals survives through the few groves which can be found on the area but the problem is that these few groves are slowly decreasing because of industrialization and urbanization. One example would be the cutting of many old-aged trees on General Trias because of the commercialization of the area. A large portion of a town in General Trias is underdevelopment as a subdivision under the name of Antel which had resulted to the loss of many old-aged trees.

       With overpopulation, urbanization, pollution, and government neglect on the wildlife of Cavite, it would not be surprising for the wildlife of Cavite to get extirpated in no time.

       We all know that our forest is very much important to our environment. There are myriad reasons why we should save our forest areas and we should act now before it is too late.

List of the Fauna or animals in Bacao General Trias, Cavite Philippines

This is a list of the animals found in Bacao General Trias, Cavite Philippines
with their scientific name, common name and Filipino (tagalog) name if possible. 

Reptiles(Incomplete)

• Lycodon Capucinus Common name: Common Wolf snake

Disclaimer: This snake was released after this picture was taken

• Phyton reticulatas Common name: Reticulated Phyton - Sawa
• Gonyosoma oxycephalum*
• Ramphotyphlops braminus Common name: Brahminy blindsnake - Ahas tulog

Photo Courtesy of Ecologyasia.com

• Gekko gecko  Common name: Tokay gecko - Tuko

Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

• Varanus salvator  Common name: Water monitor - Bayawak
• Eutropis multifasciata Common name: Sun Skink 

Amphibians(Incomplete)

• Kaloula pulchra  Common name: Asian painted bullfrog

Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

• Hylarana erythraea

        Photo courtesy of Ecologyasia.com

English name: Golden orb weaver spider

Tagalog: Gagambang pare (Priest spide)

Filipino Kitchen gardening

There had been a lot of changes on the lifestyle of the typical Filipino nowadays. The lifestyle of the modern Filipino is very much different compared to the lifestyle of the typical Filipino back on the 90's. Back then Filipinos can be seen outside of their houses compared today where Filipinos are stuck at home at the front of their computers. It is saddening that although the Philippines is trying hard to industrialize its economy, compromises has to be made and one part of that is the lost of interest of the Filipinos on nature.

Many Filipinos nowadays especially the youth find nature to be taboo although many old Filipinos are still fond of nature as seen from their gardens but it cannot be denied that the typical Filipino has lost its priority on gardening. Filipinos back then have always been fond of the "hardin" but today because of urbanization the garden-loving Filipino has encountered problems about cultivating plants.

Some of these problems are limited time, cost and space. As previously stated, urbanization had caused Filipinos to lose time for leisure activities like gardening.
Some Filipinos also find the cost of the plants to be expensive or not worth it. Filipinos would rather buy other things instead of these plants but Filipinos should reconsider the cost especially when talking about kitchen gardening which I would tackle in detail. Aside from time and cost, many Filipinos also find space to be a factor which limits their garden. Setting-up a front or back garden in the Philippines is quite rare as the typical Filipino has limited space.

Kitchen Gardening

       There are a wide variety of plant to choose from when considering a kitchen garden. Kitchen gardens abroad are really made up of vegetables and herbs which can be picked and eaten fresh any time but the big downside of it is that it is time-consuming and requires a lot of labour which is something the typical Filipino would find hard to do. In this post I would only list some of the plants which are easy to grow and which need little care. Herbs and spices are one of the plants that falls into our category. They are easy to grow and need little care. Here is a list of the usual herbs and spices found on the Filipino cuisine:

1. Bird's eye chili or siling labuyo (Capsicum frutescens)

This herb should always be present in the typical garden of the Filipinos as the leaves, flowers and leaves are used on many Filipino cuisines. This herb is very easy to grow and consumes less space.

2. Chinese celery or kintsay (Apium graveolens)

3. Pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius)

4. Lemon grass or tanglad (Cymbopogon citratus)

    There are also a handful of other herbs which are easy to propagate which the modern Filipino can use to cook non-native dishes. Adding a variety of these herbs to your garden not only beautifies your home but also bring new tastes to your dining room.

1. Basil (Ocimum basilicum)

It is just impossible

I've just read an interesting article today on yahoo. The article was about a transgender beauty queen being disqualified on a beauty pageant. Over the past few years, I was not so keen about these transgenders. I was too conservative that the thought itself of that noun makes my mind denies their existence but that was before and I'm more open-minded now. The thing that made me curious about this article is the fact that these transgenders are considering themselves as having the new gender already (i.e. male to female). As a biologist, it is quite intriguing. I know there is a big difference between the definition of a male and female in the society compared to the definition in biology. I'm more on the biological aspect that I find their statement to be wrong that they are now considered female if they were once male and male if they were once female. There is just a big difference between a female and a male physiologically. Many would argue with me that they're almost the same. But what really urged me to write this post is after reading a wishful comment of one transgender. She or he said that "hopefully in the next years, medical advancement would allow them to give birth."(She was male before). That really gave a spark on me.

It is not that I hate transgenders or homosexuals but that was wishful thinking. It is as if they are asking for some miracle. Biologically, it is impossible to change or to transform a sperm into an egg cell. Genetically, it would also be impossible to culture an organ of the opposite sex because it would not be compatible with the body. Physiologically, a surgeon can only change a tissue morphologically but never physiologically(i.e., a seminiferous tubule would never change to a germinal epithelium.) It is impossible to make a functional tissue from a completely different one.

The magic that the surgeons do to these people are not magic at all. They are simply changing the shape or structure of the tissues. It is impossible for a surgeon to transform a tissue into a completely different one. Macroscopically, they are somehow similar to the desired reproductive organ but microscopically, it is a very different story. Although that is true for the surgeons, I think it is possible for the Geneticists to change the DNA of a male cell to become a female cell(i.e. sperm to egg) but those cells would never be functional as they would never be compatible with the gene of the transgender.