It's Bougainvillea Season!

                                       Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

It's Bougainvillea Season!

“The bougainvillea is the most extravagantly beautiful

flowering plant in all of nature.” – Christopher Turner

Dr Abe V Rotor

The Siberian High brings in the chilly air;

it's amihan, summer soon to take over,

and wakes the mystical bougainvillea fair,

on the landscape in prodigious cover. - avr

Bougainvillea spectabilis in bloom across the fence of San Vicente Botanical Garden, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. Photos taken by the author, January 15, 2023

Bougainvillea is a genus of thorny ornamental vines, bushes, and trees belonging to the four o' clock family, Nyctaginaceae. It is native to eastern South America, found from Brazil, west to Peru, and south to southern Argentina. Different authors accept from 4 to 22 species in the genus. The first species recorded in the Philippines was Bougainvillea spectabilis. The other species, B. glabra and B. peruviana were introduced much later. Grenada's national flower is the Bougainvillea.

Botanically speaking, the flowers of bougainvillea are not true flowers in the sense that they do not have petals and other floral parts typical of a true flower. The colored petals are modified leaves, specialized to attract bees, butterflies - including humans - to pollinate and fertilize the tiny true flowers centrally located, which seldom develop seeds. Bougainvillea is mainly propagated by cuttings.

By the way, bougainvillea is named after a person. It was first discovered by the French botanist Philibert Commerson in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the 1760s. 

Grow Philippine spinach (talinum) year round in pots

Grow Philippine spinach (talinum) year round in pots
Talinum is rich in vitamin A and C, calcium, iron, and dietary fiber.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Talinum (Talinum fruticosum = T. tiangulare). Other names: Ceylon spinach, Fame flower, Surinam Purslane.  While it is cultivated as a leafy vegetable in Africa and South and Southeast Asia, it generally grows as an annual weed in fields and gardens during the monsoon season.  .   

Potted talinum at home, QC

Talinum is propagated by cutting. Plant in pots if you have no space in the garden. Use the lower half of one-gallon PET bottles. (Or any convenient improvised pot.)  Punch 3 or 4 holes on the side, an inch above the bottom to drain excess water, but to store water as well. 

You may buy ready made garden pots (photos). Be sure they fit into the place like window sill, fence, patio, and other locations where the plant receives adequate sunlight, and is safe from animals, sudden changes of weather, and pollution. 

On reaching 4 to 6 inches, harvest the succulent shoots, wait for new shoots to develop for the next harvest, at two weeks interval.  Replace spent soil with new garden soil, preferably with compost, after 4 or 5 harvests. Staggered planting schedule in different pots will assure a continuous supply of fresh talinum year round.  
Author with talinum harvest. Pick only the leaves and let the shoots grow new leaves. If you wish to have more shoots, harvest the succulent tops, like kamote tops, to induce branching.
Talinum is rich in vitamin A and C, calcium, iron, and dietary fiber. There are many ways to prepare talinum. The most common is blanching to be served as salad, with tomato and onions, or seasoning.  Talinum is the choice vegetable for beef stew.  And sinigang.  It goes well with fish, and other vegetables, when cooking bulanglang or diningding. Why don't you try adobong talinum,, like adobong kangkong? ~

NOTE: The true spinach is an Amaranth. It is  is also called Chinese spinach, and most likely, Popeye spinach. A spinosus is a spiny amaranth and is edible only as seedling, before the spines develop. ~

Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Practical Pest Control at Home and on the Field

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) 

Practical Pest Control at Home and on the Field

Dr Abe V Rotor

Here are pest control techniques you can adopt at home.

1. To control furniture weevil and moths which destroy the felt and piano wood, place a teabag of well-dried and uncrushed black pepper in the piano chamber near the pedals. Paminta is a good repellant and has a pleasant smell.

Lantana camara or bangbangsit is effective as insect
repellant. It is also an ornamental plant. It attracts
butterflies. Grow a hill or two in your garden.

2. Coconut trees whose shoots are destroyed by rhinoceros beetle (Oryctis rhinoceros) can be saved with ordinary sand. If the trees are low, sprinkle sand onto the leaf axils (angle between the leaf and axis from which it arises). Sand contains silica that penetrates the beetle’s conjunctiva, the soft part of the body where hard chitinous plates (hard outer membrane) are joined.

3. To control bean weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus) PHOTO, an insect that destroys stored beans, especially mungo), mix a little ash of rice hull (ipa’) and spread it in a way that sand kills the rhinoceros beetle.

4. To get rid of nematodes (microscopic elongated, cylindrical worms) in the soil, incorporate chopped or ground exoskeleton (skin) of shrimps into the soil, preferably mixing it with compost. Chitinase is formed which dissolves the cover of the egg and the body of the nematode. Use poultry dropping to reduce nematode population in farms and gardens.

5. To control the cucurbit (plants of the gourd family) fruit fly (Dacus cucurbitae), wrap the newly formed fruits of ampalaya and cucumber with paper bag. Bagging is also practiced on mango fruits. For ampalaya use newspaper (1/8 of the broadsheet) or used paper, bond size. Roll the paper into two inches in diameter and insert the young fruit, folding the top then stapling. Bagged fruits are clean, smooth and light green. Export quality mangoes are individually bagged on the tree.

6. To keep termites away from mud-plastered walls, incorporate termite soil (anthill or punso). To discourage goats from nibbling the trunk of trees, paint the base and trunk with manure slurry, preferably their own, mixed with carburo paint (white paint). 

7. Raise ducks to eat snail pest (golden kuhol) on the farm. Chicken and birds are natural insect predators.

8. An extra large size mosquito net can be made into a mini greenhouse. Underneath, you can raise vegetables without spraying. You can conduct your own experiments such as studying the life cycle of butterflies.

Caterpillars of Papilio butterfly. Insects constitute
a major food of birds, reptiles, bats and other animals.

9. Plants with repellant properties can be planted around the garden. Examples of these are lantana (Lantana camara), chrysanthemum, neem tree, eucalyptus, madre de cacao (Gliricida sepium), garlic, onions, and kinchai (Allium tuberosum).

10. To scare birds that compete for feeds in poultry houses, recycle old balls, plastic containers, styro and the like, by painting them with two large scary eyes (like those of owls). This is the reason why butterfly wings have “eyes” on them to scare away would-be predators. 

Scarecrows on a ricefield

Hang these modern scarecrows in areas frequented by birds. To scare off birds in the field, dress up used mannequins. In some cases, the mannequin may be more effective than the T-scarecrow. Discarded cassette tape ribbon tied along the field borders scares maya and possibly other pests. 

11. Prevent ants from invading dining table, kitchen sink, cupboard, by wiping with dilute natural vinegar, after final cleaning. (2 part water and 1 part natural vinegar). Vinegar is also a deodorizer of fungus and fish odor. Natural vinegar is a disinfectant  too.

12. Plant around the house eucalyptus, weeping willow trees.  They are repellents to many pest.  Use the dried leaves as smudge like "katol."  Smudging also induces fruiting of mango and other fruit trees, flowering os ornamental plants as well. Try it, it's also aroma therapeutic.

13. Never kill the spiders around. So with the wasps and preying mantis. They are nature's biological agents.  Just sweep the old cobwebs and let them rebuild new webs. Fogging and spraying is their number one enemy. Spraying and fogging are the last resort. Cover eyes and nose when spraying. Don't follow the advertisements. PESTICIDE IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS.  PESTICIDE POISONING IS CUMULATIVE. Scented sprays is deceiving because more poisons get into the body.

14. One practical means of insect control is by harvesting insects for food. This practice is not only confined among primitive societies but is still one of the most practical means of controlling insects. Anyone who has tasted kamaro’ (sautéed mole cricket – Gryllotalpa africana) would tell you it is as tasty as shrimps, lobsters or other crustaceans. After all, insects and shrimps belong to the same phylum – Arthropoda. Their body composition is the same, so with the nutrition we get - shrimp, crabs, locusts, cockroaches, spiders, scorpions, lobster, kuratsa, ipis dagat - all these are served in different recipes - to the gustatory delight of customers.  

15. Locusts may destroy crops but, in a way, bring food to its victims. During a swarm, locust is harvested by the sacks and sold for food and animal feeds. The same goes with gamu-gamu (winged termites – Macrotermes) at the onset of the rainy season, or the salagubang (Leucopolis irrorata), another insect delicacy. Other food insects are the grubs of kapok beetle locally called u-ok, eggs and larvae of hantik (green tree ant), larvae of honeybee and cheese maggots. Recently my family on vacation ordered hantik eggs in a restaurant in Vigan. Its price? P250 per order. Since then, we became vigilant of the presence of nests of this green tree ant in the trees around the house. 

The consequence is that, without the hantik, you will have more problems.  They are gleaners around the house, consuming morsels of pets which they carry to their tree nest to feed their young. They guard our orchard from intruders. No one would dare to climb a hantik-guarded tree. You can wait from the fruits to ripen in the tree. By the way, hantik ants seldom bite the residents of the house.  They seem to recognize their master.  There is some kind of pheromone affinity developed by association, and mutual understanding, I guess.  

Hantik are predators of insects, among them the dreaded hairy caterpillar - higad!  No wonder swarming of higad follows the harvesting of the green tree ants' nests.  

When is an insect a pest?
When we see an insect, instinct tells us to kill it. We should not. A caterpillar is a plant eater, but the beautiful butterfly that emerges from it is harmless, efficient pollinator. Hantik ants make harvesting of fruits inconvenient because of their painful bite, but they guard the trees from destructive insects. Houseflies carry germs, but without them the earth would be littered with dead, undecomposed organisms. They are nature’s chief decomposers working hand in hand with bacteria and fungi. Termites may cause a house to fall apart, but without them the forest would be a heap of fallen trees. 

Garlic controls most garden pests. Just add some crushed cloves to a pail of water before watering the plants.

It is natural to see leafhoppers on rice plants, aphids on corn, bugs in the soil, grasshopper on the meadow, borers on twigs, fruit flies on ripening fruits. These organisms live with us under one biosphere. If we can think we can dominate them, we have to think again. They have been dominating the earth for millions of years, even before prototype humans appeared. Just one proof: the total weight of ants inhabiting the earth far outweighs seven billion human inhabitants.

There is no way to escape pesky creatures. Conflict arises only when their populations increase rapidly to overrun our crops, spoil our stored products, and threaten our health and welfare.

                                        Skipper with false eyes to scare   predators. 

We have set certain thresholds of our co-existence with insects. As long as they do not cross that line, we can cohabit this planet peacefully with them. By so doing, we can ponder at the beauty of their wings, the mystery of the fire they carry, the music they make, the sweetest syrup they make, the finest silk they weave, the magnitude of their numbers, their playful manners, their virtually indestructible built, or marvel at the mystery of their presence.~ 
  
 

Trapping nocturnal insects as research. Entomology is the study of insects. UST Graduate School students at Amadeo, Cavite, with author as their professor (3rd from right).

Lesson, former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

The lighter side of life in verses

The lighter side of life in verses

Dr Abe V Rotor

Learn to relax like the cat.  At home 

Not a fiber tight -

tenseless; 

the world goes on - 

careless; 

lonely and sad?

senseless.

what hour of the day!

timeless

loved and cared for - 

princess.

Converting garbage into money

Don't burn, don't throw it away; 

make instead a compost heap; 

save energy, earn for the day.

fertilizer ready and cheap. 

 The 8th sense of naturalism: 

How young a coconut is young  enough?

Twice he tapped the nut

with the bolo's back;

mara-uhug, cocktail?

confidently he asked;

what's inside the green husk

is cyber deep and dark,

ingenuity that I lack.

Can fish understand human music?

I wonder what song you sing in water
if ever heard outside your realm.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Author plays the violin before a home aquarium of Oscar fish.  

I touch your senses with the violin

     in a variety of tune and melody; 

I touch your world, and yours with mine,

     together we make a fantasy.

I wonder what song you sing in water

     if ever heard outside your realm;

the bleating lamb in Beethoven's ear,

     thunder and the bubbling stream.

Do you  also sing a Brahms's lullaby

     or San Pedro's Ugoy sa Duyan?

March with Mendelssohn's graduation, 

     for real or just for the fun?  

My fish do not answer, they are dumb;

     or I can't hear and understand;

for worlds apart we are, sea and land

     across a thin transparent sand. ~

Green Stage on the Sidewalk

Green Stage on the Sidewalk 

A wall transformed, emptiness to green scenery,

amidst buildings, noise, and busy feet;

"Would you drop by for a li'l rest?" it seems to say;

a chance passersby for a moment meet. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

avrotor.blogspot.com

To school, but quite early;

there's time to explore 

in make-believe, the wood 

on the wall, with nanny 

in a happy mood.    

The school van can wait idle,

so with the kindly driver;

let time pass awhile waiting

for the children to prepare.

Reminisce the youthful years,

by the stream and forest, 

a tunnel of time and space,

to go on living afresh.

Wildlife in our home, why not?

In imagery and reflection,

the archival art of Nature 

for the future generation,

time to make up for our fault,

a grim reminder for action. 

Once in a while vary the scenery

to the depth of the sea;

 bring down the sun to refresh memory

of man's triumph and folly.    

Nature is always there as you grow up;

she doesn't grow old in her own way;

only in human hands she tires and cries;  

thus the challenge of true beauty of a lass

is to be a deity of Nature in mythology. ~

Autumn in Summer

Autumn in Summer 

"By my window I used to watch the seasons

come and go just at a passing glance,

'til I learned to capture the ephemeral 

scenes with colors and paint brush."

Painting and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

Autumn in Summer.  

Fire trees in bloom in a scorched landscape at the onset of summer, save a meek waterfall and gathering cumulus cloud.  Painting in acrylic (2' x 4') for the office of senior citizens in Greater Lagro, Novaliches QC. 

Left, snap shot of frontage  of the author's residence in Lagro QC

Oh, Life! what does it mean in summer,

when the Siberian winds begin to cease,

the trees rise bare in the blue sky,

the air still, save a passing breeze?

By the window I watch the seasons

come and go even at a passing glance;

parting the curtain once in a while,

I'm part of Nature's drama just by chance.

One day I heard knocking at the gate,

of sound and music blended together.

Lo! but only dry leaves strewn around,

emissary of autumn in summer.~

 

Let's take heed of plant signs and signals

Dr Abe V Rotor

If you grew up in the countryside, chances are you are a better reader of nature's signs and signals.

1. Fruits indicate season and place. Certain fruits are seasonal. Duhat, siniguelas and caimito are summer fruits from orchards. Melon, watermelon and squash are summer fruits from the field. Banana and pineapple though they are fruits year round are sweeter in summer.
Wild fruits like bignay and rattan indicate you are near a forest. So with pahotan (wild mango), sapote (now very rare), and native guava. Many of these wild fruits seldom have commercial value in remote areas.

Harvesting mango in season, painting by national artist, Fernando Amorsolo

2. Sensitive plants are nature's clocks and sentinels. When the leaves of acacia start to fold, it is time to fetch the carabao from the pasture and to start walking home before it gets dark. The fowls prepare to roost in their tree abode. The stew leaves a trail, as the western sky dims in the setting sun. By now the leaves of acacia (Samanea saman) have completely folded toward each other at the midrib, and the base of the midrib itself is bent on its attachment. This is also true with the leaves of sampaloc, ipil-ipil, and kakawate

If you are walking on a field where makahiya grow, and notice their leaves folded, someone - maybe man or animals - may have just passed ahead. This may serve as a warning signal in jungle warfare.

These plants, among others, belong to the legume family and are equipped with a special organ – pulvinus – that controls the erection and folding of the leaves. The principle is like a balloon. When turgid the leaves are erect; when flaccid, the leaves fold. The pulvinus is controlled by osmosis, that is, the intake and release of water in the cells.

Leaves and pods of acacia

3. Annual plants indicate the arrival of monsoon - habagat or amihan. Rainy season or habagat wakes up the sleeping seeds of saluyot, spinach or amarath (Amaranthus), kamkamote (Ipomea triloba) and gulasiman (Portulaca). In two to three weeks, they may be harvested for vegetables. Amihan on the other hand, which is the arrival of Siberain high, is harvest time for rice and other grains. It is also milling time for sugarcane.

The change in season is also monitored by migrating birds. In the northern hemisphere, when it is cold, birds flock after flock go down south for the summer, and return after winter. We who live in the tropics observe this yearly mass migration.

Reference of time among old folks is built through observation of the natural environment and a lifestyle where the amenities of modern living are absent. This triggers our biological clock, and while it may not be accurate, brings people to a natural sense of time and quaint living.

4. Fruit laden kapok means poor harvest. When you see plenty of dangling pods of cotton tree or kapok (Ceiba pentandra L), expect poor rice harvest. Kapok is sensitive to water stress. It does not have deep penetrating roots. Instead it has large spreading roots that depend largely on shallow water source.

To compensate for lack of water in summer, the tree stores a lot water in its fleshy trunk and branches like how cactus does while water supply lasts. When the stored water is not sufficient to tide up with the long, hot summer months, a triggering mechanism controlled by hormone stimulates the tree’s physiology. The plant bears flowers and ultimately fruits and seeds, a trait universal to any organism facing stress. This is the key to the perpetuation of the species. In short, Nature has provided a means with which an organism’s ultimate biological function to reproduce is carried on. And the more progeny it produces the more is the chance of the species to continue on.

5. Bamboo foretells the coming of El Niño. El Niño is a climatic phenomenon that occurs every seven years, hence the so-called 7-year itch, or the Joseph's interpretation of the Pharoah's dream of seven years of plenty followed by 7-years of famine. The cycle is erratic though, and even modern tools of forecasting may fail to provide us enough preparation to face its destructive nature.

The worst scenario is predicted by the flowering of bamboo which occurs every 5 to 10 years. Certain species of bamboo flower and die, endangering the forest to fire, and causing starvation of animals like the panda in China which is exclusively a bamboo feeder. Compounding this scenario with scorched landscape, dry river beds and ponds, brush fires, subsidence of the land often leaving gaping cracks, all point out to a major force majeure.

6. Pristine Environment is indicated by abundance of lichens on trunks and branches of trees, rocks, and soil. There are three types: crustose (crust), foliose (leaf-like) and fruticose (fruiting type). They are biological indicators of clean air. The ultimate test is the abundance of the fruticose type of lichens, while the least is the crustose type. On the side of the animal world, the ultimate indicator of clean air and healthy environment is the abundance of fireflies. ~

7. Other indicators from plants. Presence of some insects on certain fruits and vegetables without unduly spoiling their appearance indicate they are free from harmful pesticide residues.
This does not apply to sweet potato with ulalo (larva of Cylas formicarius, a beetle).

On the other hand, beware of crucifers like cabbage, lettuce and cauliflower which have no blemishes caused by pests and diseases - they are likely to contain residues of pesticides.

Secondary shoots (baraniw Ilk) of ampalaya, squash, sayote, and the like come from spent standing crops. They are relatively cheaper.

When the price of tomato suddenly goes up, it means untimely rains spoiled the crop.  So with onions, garlic, eggplant, and other dry season crops. ~

Desert in Bloom

Where have all the flowers gone?

Dr Abe V Rotor

                                                     Atacama Desert in Bloom, Peru (Internet)

Where have all the flowers gone?

Gone with the passing clouds in the sky,

Casting a dark shadow, then fly,

Leaving but a scorching sun.

Where have all the flowers gone?

Gone with every tear the heavens cry

On tired branches and empty ground

Where angels pass by.

Where have all the flowers gone?

Gone with the dryads now away.

Gone are the shower and bouquet

That make a beautiful day. ~

Rainclouds hover over an arid landscape ushering another bloom  similar to that in the 

upper photo.  Desert bloom is a rare phenomenon in the heart of a desert like the Sahara.