Philippine Tree of the Month: Anubing

In the middle of the fern garden, amidst a grove of mango trees, is a lone Anubing (Artocarpus ovatus), another endemic tree, which means it only naturally occurs in our islands. Being an Artocarpus, it is closely related to the Antipolo (which I have yet to feature), the Rimas, the Langka (Jackfruit), and the Kamansi. I was absolutely ignorant about its significance when we began here; it's a good thing the locals empathically suggested we keep this as we cleared the overgrowth in the would-be garden. At that time, it was still small (just twice my height, I reckon) and was rather puny since it was in the shaded midst of mature mango trees. But now, it is a towering specimen with a perfectly straight and upright trunk and a full crown of leaves.

And speaking of leaves, one of the Anubing's unique characteristics is its leaf's underside sticks to clothes like Velcro (right)! Apparently, it fruits too but is quite insignificant as it isn't edible. It's also a hardy tree and would thrive in rather difficult circumstances (i.e. lowland thickets, shaded areas), making it a good tree for reforestation.

Being in the middle of the fern garden, we transplanted Pyrossia on its trunk (below) and it has nicely thrived and blended amidst the fernscape.

More Bromeliads

For some weekends now, I have been sorting bromeliads into rows on steel racks I ordered from a neighborhood shop. I didn't realize that we have so much variety already, from Neoregelias (above) to Tillandsias, Cryptanthuses to Ananas (below left).

Some are so prolific in producing suckers; we have one mother plant must have generously given us two dozen! There are some though that baffle me since they only produce one in their lifetime.

Tiny Purple Orchids

Although the flowers are tiny, this profuse mass of epiphytic orchids made a dazzling appearance this weekend! I remember this particular cascade "hitched" alongside a bird's nest fern that we bought some years back and mounted on a mango tree in the fern garden. Little did we know it will bloom this profusely! I don't even know what they are called, but I just wanted to post it right away even without properly identifying it.

After a Long Wait...



... the Rimas has fruits! And not just one, but three! I think I've already told the story to how much length we went through to find seedlings, so we're quite excited to see that it has clearly established itself in our locale. It's been many, many years since I've last eaten this fruit cooked, and we're looking forward to preparing the ginataan dish with the rimas' young meat.

Flowering Fruit Trees

 It's that time of year when the fruit trees are all blooming and some are even fruiting ahead of the rest! The avocados (above left) are still in a flowering stage as the fruits are usually ripe for picking around July,but the macopas (above right) are already young fruits! Of course, the Indian mango trees (below) are not to be left behind!