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.