Mount Makiling Botanical Garden: Perfect Site for Nature Study

Mount Makiling Botanical Garden:

Perfect Site for Nature Study

                                               Dr Abe V Rotor

Students from Metro Manila visit the Mt Makiling 

Botanical Garden at UPLB Laguna, some 70 km away.

      Ode to Mount Makiling

Sleep deep and well, just snore gently through your fumarole*,

bubbling the warmth of the earth, and play a friendly role:

Creatures all you carry on your back and top,

birds too, tired on their route come to a stop;

A sanctuary to them, and others in transience,

bringing them together in seasonal conference;

Up north they return when their winter is over,

and down south others go for their summer;

Many tenants you care by your rules and game;

in Nature, each has a role whether wild or tame.

Your trees catch the clouds coming, drifting low,

and humble the wind to come in gentle blow.

Sunrise comes in golden spears among the trees,

that unveil the mist and dance with the breeze;

Sunset comes early in the trees, it settles quick,

except for the many eyes, night is dark as ink;

Night sounds are eerie - the language in the wild,

keeping campers stay awake and wide eyed;

At daybreak's roll call, each creature to its chore,

makes the lush forest come to life once more;

Cathedral of trees is dwarfed by the sky and sight,

in ever increasing span of height and might;

In storeys and boundaries, each a niche, a territory,

where each kind lives in family and harmony.

Don't wake up to soon, be gentle to children and the grownups,
as they come and visit you from the city, malls and coffee shops.~

 

 

 

  

  UPLB instructors conduct field lecture to their daily guests.

Author poses with officers and members of a local Rotary Club.  

With  them is Ms Citadel Panganiban, a student at the University 

of Santo Tomas taking up a doctorate degree in biology. Circa 2010 ~

* A fumarole is a vent from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Several fumaroles comprise the so-called Mudspring of  Mt. Makiling, a dormant volcano.