Santol fruits and the village kids

If you grew up in the countryside or even in the town center of a rural town chances are that you can easily relate to the photo spread. Simple joys can be had easily with the help of santol fruits from a neighbor's backyard (with or without the owner's consent). An afternoon 'party' only kids could easily whip up any moment as seen in this 'santol session' (photos) can happen spontaneously. It does not matter if the fruits are of the sweet or sour variety. A pinch of salt is always ready.

Photos: Alma Gamil
            Barangay Santa Barbara, Bulusan, Sorsogon
            Philippines

Katmon

The katmon tree does not grow into a very large tree making it ideal for backyard gardens.  This one is wild, growing in a farm patch in Odikin (Sta Barbara), Bulusan.

The layers of ornate pistils and the showy white petals attract wild bees and pollinators ensuring continued supply of wild katmon fruits.

While passionate gardeners are already cultivating the katmon as a unique backyard garden plant and for culinary purposes, in Bulusan it is still very much wild. My visit to Odikin (Sta Barbara) yielded several photos of wild katmon along the way. Its showy flowers were a joy to behold whether on top of the canopy or in a flower vase.

Katmon species can be found in primary and secondary forests of the Philippines but it is now cultivated and popular with garden enthusiasts and native tree conservationists. However, it is only in Bulusan that I've heard of two kinds of katmon - the 'lunohan' (soft) kind of katmon, this according to Oya Choleng, a native of Odikin, is the better katmon and the other one is the 'kidit' or the not so soft kind. Both  varieties are growing in their village.

Katmon flower is also a gem for macro photography with its ornate pistil layered in intricate organic forms.

The ASEAN Tropical Plant database listed Katmon as endemic to the Philippines with the following data:

Scientific name	Dillenia philippinensis Rolfe
Family name	Dilleniaceae

Photographs by Alma P. Gamil in Odikin
Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines

Tangid

"Galvez-Tan revealed that plant researchers all over the world consider the Philippines as a hotspot of biodiversity. He added that certain species of plants found here hold more disease-fighting potential than others found in the top two countries (Brazil and Indonesia). The French travel all the way to the Philippines to acquire our local variety of Ilang-ilang even if there is Ilang-ilang in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. They chose ours because they know that the most potent is the Philippine variety. Christian Dior (the perfume maker) gets only the Philippine species of Ilang-ilang."

Source: http://business.inquirer.net/money/features/view/20101001-295436/RP-a-superpower-in-natural-medicines

Note: Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, former Department of Health secretary, coauthored the book Medicinal Fruits and Vegetables with Ma. Rebecca Marana Galvez Tan.

With the mention of the Philippine native Ylang-ylang as the most fragrant of its kind in the ylang-ylang world, I can't help but to be proud that there are still standing Tangid trees in our farms and forest.

Tangid is our own Ylang-ylang native.

Photograph by Alma P. Gamil
Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines







Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines