Thursday, November 29, 2012

UST AB: The world in man's hand

UST AB: The world in man's hand 
Dr Abe V Rotor

Bonus Assignment in Communications Art: Interpret this verse by W Blake.  What is its significance to today's world?  To Media?  To your future career?



To see the world in a grain of sand,
      And a heaven a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
     And eternity in an hour.


- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence


Ode to the Ferocious Hantik

Dr Abe V Rotor




Green Tree Ant or hantik (Oecephalla smaragdina) nest hanging in a 
tree;  closeup and partially open nest; closeup of a worker; and army 
on the move; fatal attack on a bee, in stages.  The tidbits and pulps 
are carried up to the nest to feed the larvae and the royal family.  

You build your house up in a tree next to the sky,
     with leaves sewn together and always green,
within throbs a colony of a thousand and one  
     workers and soldiers in allegiance to a queen.  

As the day dawns, your army prepares for the trail,
     down the tree to hunt, before the sun is out, 
for food - preys and morsels, armed with mandible,
     strong as vise, sharp as razor, to tear or cut.    

On spotting a prey live, a string of soldiers descend
  stealthily like from a Trojan Horse of old days,
Then swarming over the prize hunt until it’s down,
   slaughter it to the last bit without any trace.

Nothing is left of the struggle, Sherlock Holmes
     would agree.  And new preys would come unwary,
and fall into the same modus operandi of numbers,
     and precise attack like the Legion in its glory.

Lessons man has learned from your ferocity dictate
     his wars and social order while saving dignity
through rationality he alone claims to have, but you –
     primitive and raw is your world of ferocity ~



Tuesday, November 27, 2012


About Sampaguita and Kangkong

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class Monday to Friday
                                                                                                                 
      It was a long walk and the hikers knew they were getting near their destination, a flower farm in San Luis, Pampanga in Central Luzon, Philippines. The air was filled with the singular fragrance of an immaculate white flower, the sampaguita. This flower is the pride of the Filipinos, it being their national flower. Its scientific name is Jasminium sambac.
 
      The source of the fragrance sprawled before the hikers – a track garden very much like a hillside tea farm in China or in Sri Lanka.  Sampaguita and tea have a common growth pattern.  They are bushy shrubs, trimmed waist to form a continuous hedge that makes harvesting easier. It also reminds one of vineyards in Europe and California where grapes grow following the contour of the land.

Sampaguita Farming

      Each garden is the size of a typical rice paddy, a tenth of a hectare (or one mu in China).  This is equivalent to 1,000 square meters or one-tenth of a hectare.  Small as it may when compared with other farms, sampaguita is a high value crop. It requires initial high investment and takes around two years to become commercially productive.  Production technology is rather new and the industry - from farming to garland making - is labor intensive.  But the profit derived may be several times over that of an ordinary field crop. For a size of one to two mus, a family can comfortably live on the farm’s produce, and this is appropriate for small landholdings with fairly large families. The farm which the group of hikers visited (one of whom is the author) is just ideal for one family to manage.

      “Sampaguita must be a profitable business,” we asked.  The lady gardener smiled and looked down in a gesture of humility while doing some mental computation. The lady is an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW)-turned-entrepreneur.  She is Brigida S. Batac, a former school teacher who went to Saudi, then returned some years later. Today she heads the family farm.

      Sampaguita is sold by the tabo (the size of motor oil can) of about P50.00 (US$1.00) per tabo. The harvest from the Batac farm ranges from 50 to 100 tabos a day.  This means the value of a day’s harvest is from P2,500.00 (US$50.00) to P5,000.00 (US$100.00).  Assuming that harvesting is done daily, the monthly gross sale is from P75,000.00 (US$1,500.00) to P150,000.00 (US$3,000.00).  When made into garlands, the value of the flower is doubled. A tabo contains a hundred garlands, with four flowers each.  And a garland sells at P1.00 (US$0.02) apiece.

     Net profits, after deducting the cost production, is 50 percent of each gross sale.  One can do one’s own pencil pushing to come up with the amount each family can earn.

Sampaguita Garlands

      The garland making area is the family porch of this Batac home. Brigida’s sister, Cristina, 27, demonstrated the technique of garland making. As the farming business proceeds manufacturing, the value of the product is increased, hence the term, value added

      One can picture the case of the rice farmer and the trader.  The latter undertakes the post-production work of drying, milling, storing and transporting. By doing so, he virtually takes the profit away after the farmer had sold his palay at a relatively low price.

      The lesson to be learned is that production, processing and marketing must be integrated in one roof, with a farmer, and members of his family having control over these aspects of business. Subsequently, the business becomes more self-reliant and viable.

Marketing Scheme

      The main markets of sampaguita garlands are Solis in Quiapo in Manila, Balintawak Monumento, and Malolos, Bulacan.  These centers, like Divisoria, serve as bagsakan (unloading and wholesale zone).  From here, the sampaguita garlands are retailed in sidewalks, around churches and restaurants where parties are usually held.  It is the sampaguita a little girl offers, gently tapping your car’s window after stepping on the brake at some busy intersection in the city.  It is the sampaguita we wear on graduation day, when we speak on stage, and which we offer to the Santo NiƱo. It is the sampaguita we simply hang in our sala (living room) or bedroom. Its sight and fragrance exudes a feeling of freshness and peace.

      Many will agree with the author that the sampaguita has made lasting impressions in our lives.  One of these moments is recorded in this verse he wrote sometime ago.
 
“A trophy, that I would rather miss;
for a sampaguita from a Miss
 who gives it to me with a kiss.”

      The sampaguita flowers are shy under the noonday sun but the scenario is a respite as if we were among the blooming hedges of some Italian- or French-type garden.

      Other members of the group from Manila tried their hands in stringing some sampaguita buds, forming the familiar leis and garlands.  It is not an easy job.  It takes a lot of skill, and speed to keep up with the freshness and aroma of the flowers, thus meeting the market schedules. Both sisters, Brigida and Cristina, were patient teachers, and soon enough the group began to form a production line of sorts, a prototype of the assembly line for mass production.
Tapping the Potentials of an Enterprise
      With the bright prospects of expanding the industry, we sat down with the family and talked about some aspects of the business. This is what we found out which may be useful to those wanting to develop a sampaguita plantation:

1.     There is an economic farm size for every crop in a farm. A feasibility study is needed. Consult those who have larger farms.

2.     Production technology must be improved to attain higher, and more uniform production volumes, while cutting down costs.  Work towards sustainable productivity.

3.     Integrate the flower planting business with pendant flower production such as champaca (Michella alba), ilang-ilang (Cananga odorata), and camia, some of the pendant flowers in demand.

4.     Introduce cut flower production for roses, gladiolus, daisies and even orchids for diversification.  Planners call this horizontal integration. Blossoms of Heliconia (lobster’s claw or bird of paradise) have recently become popular as a flower arrangement. From the results of pilot testing, select those flowers which are adaptable and profitable.

5.     Eliminate the use of dangerous chemical pesticides.  Replace them with botanical pest exterminators such as pyrethrum and rotenone  which are biodegradable. Greenhouse cultivation is too sophisticated and expensive for the average farm. But there are makeshift plastic greenhouses using Japanese and Chinese models. Chlorinated hydrocarbon and phosphatic compounds, chemical pesticides which act as systemic poisons, are hazardous to the gardener and the seller alike, through poison inhalation and skin contact.

6.     There is need to expand research into the many uses of sampaguita. There are a number of medicinal uses of sampaguita. In Malaysia, women soak the flowers in water for washing their faces. In China the flowers are used to give added aroma to tea.  The flowers are applied as poultice, or medicated mass, covering to the breasts of women to reduce their secretion of milk. A paste compounded with the roots of Acacia is applied to relieve headache. The leaves are used as poultice and spread over sores or other lesions.

7.     The production of sampaguita for perfumes, car fresheners or room deodorizers is another challenge for cottage industrialists.

Kangkong Farming

      From the garden of fragrance, sampaguita, the group of hikers walked over to another garden of vegetables, kangkong. No sinigang is ever cooked without this vegetable.  Kangkong is the most popular vegetable in the Philippines.  It is often dubbed the gulay ng masa (people’s vegetable), because of its cheapness, and availability everywhere and anytime of the year. Kangkong, or swamp cabbage, is scientifically known as Ipomea aquatica. It is in Barangay San Jose in San Luis, Pampanga, where a group of visitors, including this writer, were invited to observe how kangkong was cultivated like most farm-produced crops are.  

      Mang Ben Miranda took us to the edge of a stream, where he rowed a flat-bottomed boat to a kangkong pen. He then showed us how the shoots grow outward from the  “floating gardens” like the way the Aztecs grow vegetables on Texcoco Lake in Mexico, or the way Burmese farm vegetables on mud mounds where the farmer rows a dugout canoe to attend to his plants.  Another version of this unique agriculture is Sorjan farming in Pakistan and India, characterized by intervals of plots and canals.

      The thick mass of kangkong, two to three meters across, is tied to bamboo poles to steady it against stream flow, while keeping the floating vines intact. While on the boat, the harvester picks the shoots, foot long in length, which he later bundles into a thickness the size of a thigh.  This is later repacked at the market into five to six shoots per bundle, and sold for P5.00 (US$0.10) each.

      The key to productivity of kangkong is to grow it in fresh, unpolluted waters or streams.  Contrary to general belief, kangkong is not just a wild plant growing in canals and swamps.  There are several varieties of kangkong and the commercial ones are cultivated the same way as other field crops are raised.  The upland variety is short and lean, and is preferred for adobong kangkong, fried kangkong, or simply blanched for table salad (with tomatoes, onions and a dash of salt). 
Food and Mineral Value of Kangkong
      What are the mineral food content of kangkong? According to Maranon in the Philippine Journal of Science, young shoots of this plant, are rich in Phosphorus, Calcium, and Iron. The significant food value consists mainly of 3.64 percent carbohydrates, and 4.25 percent protein. Crude fiber however, cannot sufficiently supply our body’s fiber requirement since it is less than one percent in content.

      One objection to eating kangkong is the danger it may carry toxic metals.  An experiment conducted by Myrna Ramos at the University of Santo Tomas showed that lead can be absorbed by the plant and deposited in its stems and leaves. There is suspicion that mercury, a more toxic metal, can also be absorbed by the plant and passed on to humans.

     But seeing how carefully kangkong is farmed at San Jose using unpolluted waters, allayed our fears. The rule of thumb for kangkong is, we should know the source of the vegetable.

Enterprise and Cooperative

      The profitability of an enterprise for a family is one thing, but the collective success of a community of families is another.

      While it is true that there are individually successful entrepreneurs, it is essential that this success be duplicated. Hence, there is need to organize small enterprises such as a cooperative to enable them to compete in the market. Economies of scale dictates that big and organized enterprises survive where unorganized and small businesses do not. And this is the reason why multinational businesses dominate the markets, forcing small ones to fold up. The idea of organizing a cooperative was brought to the attention of the barangay council of San Jose led by Reynaldo de Jesus.

      “We had a multipurpose Cooperative before,” the chairman confessed, “but it did not succeed.”  Since then no one thought of reviving it or putting up another.  We suggested that they get assistance from the Cooperative Development Authority. It was pointed out new thrusts in cooperatives development are supported both government and private sectors. Cited were successful ones locally and abroad, such as the multipurpose cooperative of Nagpandayan, Guimba, Nueva Ecija. This cooperative was able to generate an asset base of more than P100 million (US$ 2 million) in ten years of continuous operation. Its membership grew from 30 to 300 during the same period.

      Tagudin Credit Cooperative in Ilocos Sur is another success story. The same is true for Lucban Cooperative in Bay, Laguna.  Just to illustrate the size of a cooperative, compared to a corporation; Swiss Air, one of the largest airlines in the world, is a cooperative.
Small is Beautiful
      We have no biases against big business.  But we have learned from experience how difficult it is to manage a big one.  As gleamed from Schumacher’s book, “Small is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered,” he pointed out that progress has a limit, and that bigness alone is not a guarantee of dominance and stability. We know about stories of how giant corporations met their doom. The latest is the US-based giant corporation, ENRON, which toppled like a domino. Small enterprises on the other hand, are more resilient in weathering socio-economic storms, which explains the book’s title. This award-winning book won the author the title, “Hero for the Planet Earth,” given by Time Magazine. Small farm businesses tend to be more environment friendly, if they are conscious of wanting to be sustained in their surroundings.

 Manila Market and the Concept of a Greenbelt
 
      Also pointed out was the advantage of being near a big market.  With Metro Manila’s population of more than eight million people, neighboring provinces, which include Pampanga are lucky, indeed.  They form a “green belt” of the metropolis. The zones, CAMANAVA (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela) and CALABAR (Cavite, Laguna. Batangas, and Rizal) are based on the concept of providing a peripheral source of goods and services for the densely populated metropolis.  The stimulus of a good market enhances the profitability of trade and commerce.

      The last thought that came was to hope that the success of these model enterprises could be translated into better health and nutrition, for all the people. After all, what justifications can a state give for having a good GNP (Gross National Product) but poor HDI (Human Development Index)?

GNP and HDI

      The Gross National Product can be raised to as much 10 percent, a very high estimate for the Philippines.  (Our projection is only three percent this year, compared to Vietnam’s seven percent.)  But what equally matters is that increasing or having a desirable GNP should be accompanied by just as desirable a Human Development Index. 

      HDI is measured in terms of education, health, employment, and literacy of the people, including mortality, morbidity and malnutrition of infants and children. Therefore, if the aggregate rates of return for services and manufacturing and agriculture are high, how come there are so many poor people in the Philippines?

      Having said goodbye to Brigida and Mang Ben, the sampaguita and kangkong entrepreneurs, we wished for them that their efforts serve as a catalyst for the development of their community. We hoped that they continue to combine both good GNP and HDI in that barangay, a microcosm of a nation.

      On our way back to Manila, the author’s thoughts traced back the potential flow of goods and services coming from the barangay to the enormous Manila market. Barangay San Jose, so with many similar villages in the provinces nearby, are indeed living on a gold mine, one that is waiting to be tapped. ~

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Painting with children in the neighborhood

Dr Abe V Rotor

Author teaches painting to children in the neighborhood. Lagro, QC

Children, children where did they come from? And would I care?
And I painted and painted, the canvas would take me days its size.
Over my shoulder peeped innocent young faces; met me with smile.
You like to paint? A chorus of cheers filled the air.  Exhilarating.

Here is red, this blue, this yellow.  I poured each separately - now.
Red and yellow - orange; blue and yellow - green. Where is brown?
Black? Indigo? Please make a rainbow. Make a sea, a mountain.
I felt like a tree with children perched on my branches. How lovely.   

And into the afternoon and evening we painted as if there was no end.
Children are like that.  Art is like that, too.  That's why they go together.
And we made the fields green, the trees bloom, rivers full, the sea roar.
And the past is back, the forgotten remembered, the old young again. ~   




Bitter-Sweet Pods of Acacia

Sweet Bitter Pods of Acacia
Dr Abe V Rotor
Mature pods of acacia 

I wonder how you can make sugar,  
     from the sun to leaves to pods;
wouldn't the same process I know,
     unlock the secret of the gods?

I made your pods into syrup;
     if goats love it, why can't man?
But, oh, how I brought Golgotha 
     down, its taste is next to none. 

I fermented your pods into wine,
     Ambrosian taste my goal,
Oh, not even by nature's aging
     could make a drinker a fool.

I looked up at your spreading crown,
        and wondered what good you're meant,
   cracked your pods for a final taste  
       of life's bitter-sweet taste and scent. ~   

Sunday, November 18, 2012

UST Communications Art Assignment: Movies I love most


Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Lesson on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid, DZRB 738 KHz. AM with Ms Melly C Tenorio, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday  

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3CA3 Second Assignment
List down the movies you have watched with the theme related to your course in Communications Art, and critique the one that is most relevant. (Handwritten on a short bond.) 
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The Movies I Love Most 

Italian movie which won 43 awards, beating any of Hollywood's bemedalled movies.  Gingerly hilarious at the start, the plot turns serious as a happy family is whisked to a Nazi concentration camp.  Here human compassion, love, dedication, and endurance are put to test in the midst of extreme danger. The story gives one the thought that "tragedy of one is the victory of others, " but not as an equation.  It is about heroism, it is about love in the purest sense of the word that a man can give to his family, and to his fellowmen and country. 




Considered to be the greatest novel ever written. (Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal ranks with this novel and other novels of the same political theme - the dawn of independence and the birth of new nations.) Europe was in turmoil in the 18th century at the crossroad of imperialism and proletarianism.  Inflamed by the French Revolution's trilogy - Liberte, Fraternite, and Egalite, the book - like Noli - inspired  nationalism 
that subsequently toppled centuries-old master-slave relationship, thus ending imperialism in the Western world, and colonization on the other side of the globe - Asia, South America and Africa, and many island countries.  




A romantic story in the midst of the American civil war, top grosser of all time. War is not a deterrent to love and its frivolities.  It fact it becomes intense - more intense for that matter - than the civil conflict costing thousands of lives, when love itself is not fulfilled, turning to hatred and abandonment.  "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.!"



Les Miserables was introduced to me at a young age by my dad.  I have kept the book since then. My children curiously asked why the book is so important. It is contemporary to Tolstoy's War and Peace, and one who has read both, or viewed their movies, would understand more of the values of life in a troubled world in the past as it is in the present.  The indomitable character of man to aim at freedom, justice, brotherhood, are ingrained in the human person, so with the society of which he is a part. 
The Gods Must be Crazy (Original, first of 3 versions) is a  story about civilization. Why are the Bushmen in an Africa desert  more "civilized" than us in our post-modern world? And why do they lead a happier and more contented life? 

Other Favorite Movies 
  1. To Kill a Mockingbird
  2. Fiddler on the Roof
  3. Dr Zhivago
  4. For Whom the Bell Tolls
  5. The Little Prince
  6. The Sound of Music 
  7. My Fair Lady
  8. Dead Poet Society
  9. Swiss Family Robinson
  10. Castaway
  11. The Fourth Wise Man
  12. Mother Teresa
  13. Oliver, Oliver
  14. The Count of Monte Cristo
  15. Gulliver's Travel
  16. Great Expectation
  17. The Prince and the Pauper
  18. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
  19. A Beautiful Mind
  20. Gandhi
  21. Fly Away Home
  22. Luther
  23. The Mountain Man
  24. The Rain Man
  25. The Ten Commandments
  26. Reporters at War
  27. Shattered Glass
  28. Hawaii 
  29. An Inconvenient Truth 
  30. South Pacific

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Ten (10) Points of Caution When Using Paints

Ten (10)  Points of Caution When Using Paints
Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Paints are everywhere. In the US alone, between 3 to 4 million gallons of paint are used everyday. Paint is part of modern life. If there is one more thing that we can't avoid in life, it is paint. And its allies: resin, ink, pigments, dyes, and the like.

For many years I have been associated with paints - at my small framing shop, with my hobby of painting, and in conducting art workshops. 

Knowing the dangers of paints,
I have listed down ten ways by which we can reduce its effects on our health and to the environment, and enjoy the many functions and marvelous beauty paints bring into our lives.



Art workshop for children must be closely supervised even when using 
"non-toxic" paints. Water-based paints are safer than oil-based paints. 



1. Paint outdoor. Paint fumes are harmful. Don't work in air conditioned room. Be sure the place is well-ventilated.

2. You may be taking in paint into your body inadvertently. Don't inhale paint directly. Odorless paint is simply masked paint; it is even more dangerous because you can't detect its toxic fumes.

3. Wash hands thoroughly with soap after painting. Don't eat when painting. Paint may be inhaled through smoking. Use mask if possible, specially for oil and lacquer paints.

4. Don't occupy a newly painted room. Place pieces of charcoal at the corners of the room to adsorb the gaseous substance and odor. This takes a week or two. Natural vinegar in a bowl will help eliminate fumes and paint odor.

5. Close supervision is needed when teaching young children to paint - any paint for that matter, including pastel and crayon. Remember there is no absolutely safe paint.

6. All paints contain varying amounts of lead, including the gold linings of china. That is why you have to discard plates and cups which have fading gold linings. A case of a sickly boy was traced to this cause - slow lead poisoning, which is similar to the syndrome that affected the Romans who were using lead coated vessels and cups . There is no substitute to lead (Pb) as paint adhesive, not only to extend the life of the paint and ink but also to enhance its colors.

7. Exchanging and sharing paints with friends and in the neighborhood will reduce need of more paint. This project will solve excess paints that would otherwise go to waste. It is not good to store paints for obvious reasons.

8. Keep paints away from children. Parental guidance is needed to guide them and correct wrong impressions on certain TV shows and childrens' parties where paint is liberally used.

9. Don't use newspaper as back padding when your child gets wet from rain or perspiration. Lead used in the ink can be absorbed by the body. Use towelette or handkerchief instead. Better still, change clothes with a dry one immediately.
Lead from newsprint may contaminate food and can be ingested by pets.

10. Old paint must be scraped off to get rid of its dust before applying new paint. Lead in paint dust if inhaled is bad to health. Check your bedroom, your living and dining areas regularly.


Let's enjoy the many functions and marvelous beauty paints bring into our lives. But let's exercise precaution in using them

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Nursery Perspective

Dr Abe V Rotor
 Nursery visitors at Delgado Medical Center QC


What future awaits the newly born
     matters not in rare moments of joy;
link to a new world and generation,
     reality for now that the spirit buoy. 

What makes the world go all around, 
     through generations, yet as ever new
as beginning and doubling of lifetime, 
     the perspective of a nursery view. ~

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Enigmatic Pongapong

Enigmatic Pongapong
Dr Abe V Rotor

Vegetative phase of the life cycle of pongapong, (Amorphophallus campanulatus). The plant grows luxuriantly, then dies out without trace of its trunk and leaves. Overnight, like a fairy tale, a curious giant flower breaks out of the ground. Center of Ecozoic Learning and livelihood (CELL), Silang, Cavite.

Pongapong 
is a rare plant. Its reproductive stage is in the form of a single bulbous flower arising from an underground enlarged root. The flower is pollinated by flies attracted by putrefying odor of meat. Once fertilized the flower settles down as if decayed as the seeds mature and become ready for dissemination. The vegetative stage of the plant is succulent appearing like a giant fern. The enlarged root is often harvested for hog feed. It is cut into small pieces and cooked with other feed ingredients. Dr. Anselmo S Cabigan, biology professor examines the plant.


What a life you have, my pongapong fair:
     At one time you are all but a huge flower, 
Emerging in royal velvet with deathly air; 
     Yet in monsoon, you are reborn a tower.
Breaking out while Hades is in slumber.



 jfilac said...

They call it "TIGI" | "tigue" in Iluko.
March 3, 2011 4:04 PM 

 Bez said...
I was never fond of root crops, more so the indigenous ones. Of course, those that come into mind are the usual, more “famous” ones like the carrot, potato, turnip and to a much lesser extent, the yam (Ube) and camote (sweet potato). But upon reading the piece on the pongapong, I recognized it and I may have come across it on one of my forest travails. The pongapong emits an odor much comparable to rotten meat and attracts carrion beetles and flies. The flower is unique in appearance and breaks the very existential definition of a flower, a fragrant piece of plant life. Gross as it may sound and smell, I couldn’t fathom the diversity of our root crops in the Southeast asian region.

It really amazed me to know that despite the appearance and the stench it emits, the pongapong actually is being considered as a food source, specifically as a vegetable. Imagine cooking it in the normal Pinakbet or Sinigang recipe. And it is quite a comparison to be able to relate the pongapong to the much delectable squash and sinkamas. And to think that this plant has therapeutic qualities like combating rheuma and serving as your forest-grade all natural, all-organic Biogesic, all I can say is it is truly enigmatic.

March 6, 2011 10:14 PM 
 Anselmo Sr. said...
Thank you for publishing this rare picture from the former Botanical Garden at SPUQC. The gardener must have mistaken the corm for some other flowering species. I remember a long drought in 1956-7 when we had no rain for 10 months and all our crops failed. My father and I collected some unopened pungapong leaves and immature wild papaya fruits from the riverbed. The vegetable dish flavored with bagoong-alamang tasted heavenly but sleep was uneasy after a day without rice. We did not know "El NiƱo" yet but I never forgot that one day when there was no staple on the table.
March 8, 2011 1:44 PM  

3 comments:
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Iara Restini said...
Well I have myself a pongapong growing its flower out right now! I found it amazing! I have never seen one or heard about it and all of a sudden it came up in the midle of my garden. How come? I can't understand how it did happen!
Description: http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif
Joanna said...
Do you have Amorphophallus Paeoniifolius for sale? I need it on my thesis that should be done this sem and I can't find a sample here in Cavite...Pls reply ASAP..Thanks
Description: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T4X_e_gKYyU/SXqeNgik6vI/AAAAAAAAAYU/MYzWGEEjmMQ/S45/avatar.jpg
avrotor said...
Pongapong is strictly a wild plant and has not been comercialized to my knowledge. It was once popular as hog feed in the Ilocos in pre-war era. For reference, see Useful Plants of th Philippines, Volume 1, by William H Brown. I mentioned two potential pharmacological uses in the new post on the same subject which might interest you. Thank you for following my blog.