Jardinerong Sunog (the Burnt Gardener)

I and my Swedish stepbrother Simon recently had the pleasure to be a part of a fishing expedition with two friends in a remote location along the Agos River in the province of Quezon. Pitching our tents in a sandy riverbank, we set up our nets and began exploring our surroundings. Justin, an American who has been living in the Philippines, crossed the other side of the river where he found populations of the bladderwort Utricularia striatula , a species that is found from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao but with very patchy and highly localized distribution. I have observed this species in two ultramafic sites in Zambales a few years ago, but this species can also occur in soils with underlying mafic rocks. Later that afternoon, Justin, Simon, and I set off to botanize the length of the riverbank from where we erected our tents and, unsurprisingly, we found more of these tiny carnivores living amongst sparse grasses, mosses, and some emersed vegetation. They were rooted on...

Some orchids have extremely restricted ranges, being only found in one very specific site in just one mountain, and on the other end of the extreme are those that occur in vast swathes of territory- and I mean VAST. The plant we have here is one such species, with a range that can almost be described as ridiculous. Ladies and gents, meet Spiranthes sinensis . How widespread is Spiranthes sinensis ? It has been recorded from India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China across mainland Southeast Asia (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Kashmir, and Mongolia), Siberia, Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Korea, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands, East Timor, the Moluccas, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Niue, Northern Australia, Tasmania, New Caledonia and New Zealand. Whew. In the Philippines, this species has been found in Ifugao, Benguet and Mountain Province on Luzon, the island of Dinagat, and Agusan (exact provinces no...

Whilst walking along a trail to an abandoned limestone quarry in Oriental Mindoro with my nephew and stepbrother, I observed several blooming plants of Clerodendrum macrostegium , a large tree-like shrub growing to around 4 m tall, with stems terminating in masses of large, purple-pink bracts where the white flowers appear. I have been on this trail several times before and could not remember these plants being not in bloom, although I must admit that these are far from their best; summer and autumn seem to be their peak blooming period. The vestite, four-angled stems bear large, cordate leaves that are covered in short, white hairs which lend these a velvety feel. Like the popular C. quadriloculare , this species suckers at the base though not as extensively. Large plants look very gangly, with the lowermost portions of stems being devoid of foliage. Additionally, the leaves are often either frayed or chewed on by herbivorous insects, although there are times of the year wh...

Let us be honest:  Dendrochilum deserves more recognition that it is currently being bestowed with. Despite being a diverse genus, very few species are in general cultivation and being propagated, which is a crying shame considering the many attractive virtues that other lesser known species offers to the discerning and rabid collector. So please allow me to introduce to you a little-known orchid from the genus Dendrochilum - D. unicallosum . Dendrochilum unicallosum was described by Louis O. Williams in 1937, based on fragments collected by Augustus Loher in the province of Rizal on September 1909. For a number of decades, this species remained one of the least known of Philippine dendrochilums, until plants began to appear in the trade, which is said to have come from Nueva Vizcaya on central Luzon. This   is a quite straggling plant with relatively long, curved to often pendent rhizomes which bear the pseudobulbs at 1.5 cm. intervals. These pseudobulbs are up...

As I passed by a group of ant plants and orchids one rainy morning, I caught a strong scent emanating from among the tangled vegetation of my humble plant collection and, almost obscured by one of the vandas, is a cluster of flowers from a plant of Hoya lacunosa , a plant that is frequently neglected and thrives on it. Indeed, with even the slightest care the longest stem has already passed the one-meter mark. Looking closely, I spotted several peduncles with developing buds. Some months ago, I also caught a whiff of its perfume and, seemingly forgetting which of my hoyas had such scent, it took me a few minutes to track down its source. You know you have lots of many different plants already when things like this happen. In quite a few occasions I get surprised to see a plant that I could not even recall how I got in the first place. At any rate, the scent of this species is among the strongest in the genus, relative to size. An old favorite, Hoya lacunosa was so name...

This is a plant which I have given a provisional name of Ceropegia sp. 3, a Philippine species of unknown provenance. It has been flowering for about three months now, and I am still wondering why I have not written a post about it, until now. Well, it isn't yet too late, isn't it? This is a distinctive species that is attractive even when not in flower due to the leaves which are prominently and generously spotted with pale yellow. This plant may be the most widely seen Philippine Ceropegia in the local scene, as I know quite a few individuals also possessing the species. Paul Pinto, who has one of the most diverse collections of stapeliads in the Philippines, has a photo of his plant with a somewhat longer neck and markings tending towards pinkish as well as some minor differences, though I am inclined to put it down to variation. The flowers on my plant are 3.5 cm in length, elongating slightly to 3.8 cm as anthesis progresses. A curious aspect of this plant...

Earlier today I was feeding my plants of Phalaenopsis schilleriana with a high potassium fertilizer to prepare them for their February to March show, a flowering event that takes place only once a year and has become a source of constant early year anticipation for me. With those pink, fragrant flowers, who wouldn't? Most of my schillerianas are on the second floor of my house, while there are only two on the uppermost level, one of which is still too small to bloom. Except for the small one, all my other schillerianas have inflorescences already peeking out, or at least that is what I think. One of the quirks of this species is that these plants will often send out spikes which terminate not with buds, but a keiki, much to the consternation of many growers. This often happens when a plant is denied a cooling period prior to the expected flowering season, but even in areas with the correct climate, schillerianas will dish out an unamusing joke on you that’s one year in the mak...

I received this plant as Stapelia grandiflora back in November 2017 and bloomed a year later, when the plant has already developed into a sizable clump. Upon seeing the first flower, I was immediately under the impression that the identification was incorrect, and was reminded instead of S. unicornis , a species similar to the popular S. gigantea , but with smaller flowers and a bowl-like interior. Today, two flowers opened simultaneously, and I am still not sure what this could be. Stapelia unicornis is so-named by virtue of its inner corona lobes that are in contact with one another and giving the impression of a central horn. I could not find this feature in the flowers on my plant, although it does share the erose (appearing as if gnawed) margins. I must suppose then that this plant is possibly a hybrid involving S. unicornis  and probably  S. gigantea . It has the stem proportions and bowl-like flower interior of the former, with the prominent transver...

Here before us is what has been called Orbea semota  var. lutea , a popular version of O. semota with vibrant yellow flowers- ' lutea ' means 'yellow' in Latin, specifically a deep yellow one sees in buttercups. However, this name appears to only circulate these days among the horticultural community, as color forms hold no taxonomic value- but we'll get to that. Thus, the name O. semota  var. lutea  is now only a synonym of O. semota . Or so the gods at the hallowed halls of Kew say. This form is said to have been originally found near Nairobi in Kenya, growing on rock outcrops. A fly moves into the flower to lay its eggs, which immediately hatch into writhing maggots. This flower opened last Dec. 30. Color forms really aren't distinct from the normal ones- except of course for the color. This is the reason why in the taxonomic discipline, such differences are not given separate status such as variety or forma  (this latter designation is the ...