Traveler's Palm Could Save Your Life

Dr Abe V Rotor

Water stored in the leaf axils of Traveler's Palm (Ravenala madagascariensis) is likened to a living oasis to weary travelers lost in the forest or crossing uncharted open fields. Other than emergency source of drinking water, its seeds are edible and are gathered by natives of the place.   Author demonstrates how the water is tapped like  miniature spring.  UST Botanical Garden.  Manila 

Gardeners are fascinated by the neat and orderly fan-like leaf arrangement of traveler's palm. Today the palm is one of the popular ornamental trees in homes and parks in the tropical and sub-tropical regions.  Natives claim that the plants follow a common pattern and direction which serve as living compass when lost in the forest or in the open, hence the name of the plant. 

Right photo shows the inflorescence or flower clusters from which seedlings develop and subsequently disseminated. The other means of propagation is by means of suckers (like the banana). 

Traveler's palm was once classified with the banana Family Musaceae), but later classified under Family Strelitziaceae, to which the Bird-of-Paradise plant belongs. (Acknowledgement: Internet photos)

NOTE: Ravenala is a genus of flowering plants with a single species, Ravenala madagascariensis, commonly known as traveler's tree or traveler's palm. It is not a true palm but a member of a monocotyledonous flowering plant family, Strelitziaceae. In Madagascar where the plant is endemic, lemurs are astute pollinators of Ravenala; they use their long tongues to reach the deep seated water.

Cumulus Cloud

Dr Abe V Rotor

                  

Rise up from the sea and come down as rain;

wake the ponds and drench the hills to

make the brooks laugh and the river swell;

fill the lakes and make the fields green,

 the trees and the mountain;

show your ephemeral beauty in changing faces,

in rainbow and a myriad figures

delight many a child to draw, to dream and grow;

rise, rise up and be weaned, to be free;

and if one day the water of the sea is not enough,

drink, drink deep from my little cup. ~

Acknowledgement: Photo from Internet

Protists - the Missing Link?

Protists - the Missing Link?

"... where lie the missing link and common genes,

the mystery of Creation ever since."

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Protists - Prototype Plants and Animals in acrylic by the author (4ft x 4ft) 2017

Phylogeny - the hypothetical tree of taxonomy,
from simple to increeasing complexity,
tracing the origin and place of all things living -
microbes, plants, animals, human being.

Thanks to Swedish Carl von Linnaeus' genius,
pioneer of classification we now use;
and Charles Darwin's theory of evolution,
tracing biodiversity and life's union.  

Yet life continues to defy man's knowledge, 
 from ocean depth to volcanic ledge,
where lie the missing link and common genes,
  the mystery of Creation eversince. ~

NOTE: Protists are protozoans, green algae, seaweeds, and other unicellular organisms which comprise  Kingdom Protista. In modern classification  Protista gives rise to multi-cellular organisms under Kingdom Plantae and Kingdom Animalia. Scientists have recently separated fungi as Kingdom Mycophyta. which also arises from Protitsta, whereas Protista crosses the border of bacteria and blue-green algae (BGA) which are grouped under Kindom Monera, the most primitive living things which have no organizd nuclei (prokayotes). Organisms under Protista and the other three kingdoms have organized nuclei (eukaryotes).  Thus protists link the prototype organisms and the multi-cellular organisms. 

Behind Bars in the Mind - Two-liners for Everyday Living

Behind Bars in the Mind - Two-liners for Everyday Living (Series 3) 
A problem easily solved

Often returns unresolved.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Now and then I jot ideas as they come spontaneously at work, leisure and even in the middle of the night. 

Ideas are fleeting, they just disappear and are difficult to recall.  Fortunately, with a notebook at hand, I was able to capture  and transcribed them painstakingly into two-line verses. 

Here are some I wish to share in this blog and on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-the-air) 

1. A boy gets to be a man when a man is needed;
A man gets to be a boy in times unheeded.

2. Beauty seen once may break many hearts,
That heal soon enough as the image departs.

3. To endure the pain of hatred,
A leader’s wisdom often dared.
 
4. Only good wine grows mellow with age;
So does a good man into a sage.

5. Beauty builds upon beauty,
Ad infinitum to eternity.

6. The past may leave remnants to the future,
New to the young while dying bit by bit.



7. On some mountain top, one’s echo is clear and loud;
In the market place it dies, so in any crowd.

8. A clenched fist softens under a blue sky,
Like high waves, after tempest, die.

9. If a little in me dies if only someone must live,
Here then, Lord, here is my whole life to give.

10. The man that you see today
Was the child of yesterday. ------------------------------------------------------
The wind whistles a wild song through the trees 
before it settles into a breeze.
------------------------------------------------------

11. He who nods when old is wise and deep,
Save he by the fireside asleep.



12. How seldom, if at all, do we weigh our neighbors
The way we weigh ourselves with the same favors.

13. We say we do not have the time, is an alibi
To indolence and loafing, letting time pass by.



14. Ephemeral are the ways of our lives
Watching not the sun to set and rise.

15. Yield or refuse, a woman is delighted,
Silence her excuse to decide instead.

16. Virtues suddenly dawn upon him,
Who, behind bars, hears a mournful chime.

17. Passion and lust to a prodigal son,
After the desert blooms, it returns to sand.

18. If the world is going to end either in fire or ice,
Altogether we die once – not twice.

  
Atacama Desert in bloom 

19. What is more mean than envy or indolence
But the two themselves riding on insolence?

20. The worst persecution is one of the mind;
That of the body it can undermine.Acknowledgement: Internet photos

Listen to the Sea in the City

Listen to the Sea in the City  
Dr Abe V Rotor 

Listening to the sea in make believe. 

Listen to the sea in the city

hushing in monotony;

of roaring wheels and feet.

on concrete walls and street;

close your eyes to see

yesterday by the beautiful sea,

to fill up emptiness

with make-believe tenderness. ~

 

Sex of the baby in the womb is known by the looks of the mother.

Dr Abe V Rotor

You can predict the sex of the baby while it is still in the womb by the appearance of the mother. 

If the mother looks beautiful, the baby is likely to be a girl, if it is the opposite it's going to be a boy.

The formula seems easy enough, but the criteria of beauty are relative, and if one is not familiar with the person, he may not have sufficient basis of comparison.  

But I am witness to one who might have the eighth sense.  I asked her and she explained.  "A mother who is carrying a baby girl exudes warmth and radiance, her skin is smooth, her eyes bright and has an easy and positive disposition."  She pointed at her specimen, a relative of hers. 

True to her prediction, the baby proved to be a girl.

Now it was my turn.  

A cousin of mine was five months pregnant.  I studied her intently. She did not have the radiance and disposition the expert found in the mother we had earlier studied.  Everything was the opposite.  "It's going to be a boy," I concluded confidently.  

I forgot all about it until my cousin paid a visit at home. A little girl was tagging behind.  I studied her little face as she peeped behind her mother's skirt.  She looked stern and sore from crying. 

It was no different from the face I saw five years ago.  

Acknowledgement:  Living with Folk Wisdom by AV Rotor; Internet photo     

A Valley of Life

        Dr Abe V Rotor

Kite Flying, a Reflection of Happy of Childhood in acrylic by the author, circa 2012.

Never call it a valley of doom,

       but joy and adventure;

Where kites fly into the blue sky

       In praise of lovely Nature.

NOTE: Valley of death is an aphorism, mentioned in the bible and often recited in prayers.  The fact is, a valley dies mainly by the destruction of its watershed, resulting in erosion and siltation. All over the world and throughout history valleys have been lost as a consequence of calamities induced by man’s activities from deforestation to destructive farming, not to mention overpopulation. Valley of death therefore, is a grim reminder of man’s folly and greed.  This painting by AV Rotor shows a piece of that lost Eden, which man can rebuild as a good guardian of his environment.  Otherwise, after man’s demise, Nature takes over to redeem herself.  As one philosopher, when asked “How is Nature preserved?” said, “Leave Nature alone.”

Freshwater Ecology: Ponds and Mudflats - Placenta of Terrestrial Life

Freshwater Ecology:   

 Ponds and Mudflats - Placenta of Terrestrial Life  

 Dr Abe V Rotor

A pond is a transient environment. Unlike a stream, river, or lake, it has feeble currents or none at all. It is surrounded by thick vegetation which advances towards the center as it grows older. As the pond fills up with sediments and muck, and its bottom gradually drains, higher plants become progressively abundant.

In a shallow pond the forces of wind and convection keep the whole volume of water in circulation so that at any depth the temperature is fairly uniform and the amount of gases, notably oxygen and carbon dioxide is equally distributed.
Nipa hut by a pond, painting by the author
The relatively large ratio of surface to volume of ponds make them most susceptible to weather and climatic changes than large bodies of water. Because of their small size they are also susceptible to changes in physiographic conditions like erosion and deposition.

Like any community a pond grows, passes a relatively stable mature phase, and ultimately dies. This basic ecological cycle is a result of interplay between organisms and their environment. Organisms live in an environment where they are adapted, and remain in the most stable area or niche which spells out their success as a population and as members of an interacting ecosystem.

The physical nature of the environment consequently determines what types of organisms can settle successfully. Temperature, rainfall, altitude, soil conditions and other environmental factors decisively influence the kinds of plants that survive in a given place. Vegetation in turn, as well as the animals, has selected effects on the kind of biotic community in that region. Organisms gradually alter the local conditions. Raw materials are withdrawn from the environment in large quantities, and metabolic wastes are returned together with dead organisms, but of another form and in different place, thus resulting to re-distribution and alteration of vast quantities of substances.

This means that later generations of the original organisms may find the altered local environment no longer suitable for themselves so that the members of the community must resettle elsewhere or die out. Later a new community of different plants and animals arrive and settle down. Again this new community will alter the area according to its own specialization. Hence, it is said that the living and non-living parts of the environment are vitally interlinked, that changed in one produces change to the other.

Lotus (Nelumbium nelumbo) is common in tropical ponds
As a typical ecosystem, a pond relates a classical story. Most ponds must have originated during the last ice age when the moving glaciers scraped out giant sinks. Others have been known to originate from a portion of a bay or lake that was isolated by a sandbar by the action of waves and wind. Pirated rivers may also form into ponds. Most of the newly formed ponds may be wiped out days, months or years later, by storm or silt deposition. But a better-protected pond survives the drastic geologic fate. It must somehow face the slow process of ecological succession through which continuous dynamic processes take place that will ultimately lead to the accumulation of organic matter and silt.

On the functional aspect of ecological succession, like in any transient communities, the progressive increase of organic matter which fills up the pond will lead into a heterotrophic conditions which means that the dependent organisms (heterotrophs) will increase in proportion to the increase of the producers (autotrophs). These favor aquatic and semi-terrestrial organisms, and therefore, biological diversity.

The living bed of terrestrial life is the fertile bottom of the pond - the mudflat, which intermittently comes out to dry, a cycle that incubates eggs of many organisms, allows spores and seeds to germinate, and dormant organisms to become active.

The mudflats are exposed and submerged at intervals depending upon the amount of water that enters the pond from the tributaries upstream and from the surrounding watershed. As the remaining aquatic zone further shrinks and the water flow meanders along the bottom, wider mudflats are formed. \
Carp fish among Nymphaea lilies and cattails, painting by AVR

No zone in the pond is richer in variety and in number of living things, and no types of interrelationships could be more complex, if not deceiving or unknown, than the aquatic zone where life continues on in some most amazing and mystic ways. There are evidences that these dynamic changes shall go on until the pond has completely transformed into a terrestrial ecosystem, despite such threat of pollution which may have already marked the face of the pond.

But nature proves flexible with change. Normal changes would simply be dismissed by Nature’s own way of adjusting the role of its own creatures. Changes shape the conditions of the environment; that in turn, determine the organisms that fit better into it.

The bottom of the pond is directly affected by the amount of water and by water flow. It is the recipient of silt and other sediments from plant residues from the surrounding watersheds and from the immediate shoulders of the pond. The decreasing area occupied by water may indicate the age of the pond, and the changes which, undoubtedly lead towards an irreversible transition from aquatic to terrestrial state.

Typical of old ponds and lakes, the aquatic zone considerably decreases with the lack of water supply and by the steady deposition of silt and decomposing plant remains- not to mention the garbage and other wastes thrown into the pond by unscrupulous residents in the area. The black, spongy and fertile deposits are favorable to many plant species and consequently of the dependent animal organisms. From time to time pioneer plants venture for a try to settle every time terrestrial conditions begin to prevail.

But in many parts of the old exposed bottom left by the receding water, terrestrial plants can not settle down because time and again the water immediately submerges the previously baked flats to become once more a slosh of mud that readily shallows a wader to his knees. And so the outcome of the battle turns to the advantage of the aquatic plants- Eichhornia
(water hyacinth), Alternanthera,Jussiaea, Nymphaea and Pistia (kiapo) and of course to the ever-present thick scums of blue-greens and green algae with their co-dependents. Ipomea (kangkong), the adventuresome

Brachiaria (para grass) and other grasses. Other plants hand are pushed back to safer limits where they wait for conditions to favor another invasion, that is when the mudflats shall come out to the sun again.

The story of competition between the two groups continues indefinitely and all the while the sluggish water meanders against the shoulders of the pond and etches the old bottom. But all along, sediments pile on the bottom until small isolated “islands” are formed in the middle of the water zone. The isolation of these islands can not be for long, so their barrenness, for the dormant seeds under the warm rich soil suddenly come to life and together with air borne seeds and spores, and the stranded shoots and tillers, which make these islands “small worlds” themselves.

Cyperus is a common pond plant. It is a relative of the Papyrus, the source of the first paper.
No place in the aquatic zone is absolutely for a particular species. However the dominance of a species can be noted from one place to another. For example, the pseudo-islands in the middle of the aquatic zone may be dominated by Brachiaria, while the lower part of the pond where water is usually deeper, harbors the remnants of the once dominant Eichhornia. At the headend, the old bottom may be covered up with grass, except in places that may be occupied by Jussiaea repens, a succulent broad-leaf and a water-loving species.

Pristine Pond, painting by Anna Rotor-Sta Maria
Any decrease in area of the true aquatic zone a corresponding increase of the immediate zone. Terrestrial plant species continuously pursue the reclaimed flats. Ipomea and Alternanthera species appear at the front line of the invasion while the grasses stand by. The logic is that the former can better withstand the conditions of the waterline. Their roots bind the particles of silt and humus, which are suspended in the water, and when the plants die, organic matter is added, thus favoring the terrestrial species take over. It is as if these benefactors are robbed at the end by their own beneficiaries.

The aquatic and shore zones are more or less homogeneous as far as their principal plant species are concerned. This could be explained by the fact that the newly established zone (aquatic zone invaded by plants) is but an extension of the shore zone, and was it not that the shore zone a part of the aquatic zone?

Hence, the close relationship of the two zones can be readily noted, although they can be divided by alterne. This demarcation is not steady as shore vegetation spreads out into the water zone.

The phytoplanktons composed of countless green algae, flagellates, diatoms, desmids and a multitude of bacteria are the precursors of the food pyramid. They form the broad base of a pyramid structure. Simplified, the phytoplanktons make up the larger group, on which the zooplanktons depend. Insects and other arthropods lead the third group of organisms, while amphibians fish and reptiles make up the fourth. The farthest link is made up of the decomposers, which ultimately produce organic matter and humus upon which phytoplanktons and plants depend live on. The food chain web is characterized by mutualism, parasitism, predatism, saprophytism, commensalism, and decomposition – all of which link all organisms into a greater whole, the ecosystem.

In the pond, the rooted as well as the floating plants and the phytoplanktons are the “producers”. They support the herbivores (insects and fishes), and they add organic matter when parts or the whole of their bodies die. Zooplanktons generally feed upon the phytoplanktons, although some are dependent upon organic matter and humus. Small fishes, crustaceans and insects eat the zooplanktons in turn,, and these will be eventually eaten by carnivores. If not eaten, every plant and animal eventually die and decompose, its protoplasm reduced to the basic materials that green plants needed for growth.

The shores progressively widen following the drying of the mudflats. This area is usually dominated by grass, followed by crawling and viny plants, such as those belonging to the morning glory family (Convulvolaceae). Shrubs on the farther edge of the pond join annuals. During the rainy season the shores are waterlogged. The soil is black and it emits methane and ammonia gases, which show that anaerobic decomposition is taking, place. Muck is the product of this slow process. The soil is rather acidic but many plants tolerate it. High ferrous content can also be noted as rusty coloration, a characteristic of waterlogged soil.

Claude Monet's masterpiece painting of Nymphaea pond and Japanese foot bridge
Towards the end the shore becomes dry. Vegetation changes follow a dynamic pattern, the grass producing numerous secondary stalks, which become thick and bushy. The broad-loaf species tend to grow in clumps or masses. Some plants in the slope zones descend to join some plants in the shore zone, some are forced into prostate growth. Along the water line the grass is tall and verdant green. Meantime the trees close in. The tree line advances to the edge of the pond a soon the pond will die.~

A Child's Pizza

A Child's Pizza 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Pizza according to six years old Mackie, in acrylic on corrugated  board. 
 There is no standard Pizza save its name and origin - Italy.  Variations are many according to place, taste, and occasion. It is one way to entice children to eat vegetables as shown in these recipes below. 

 
Toppings are rich in nutrients and minerals derived from a wide choice of  vegetables and fruits in the area,  Most common vegetables are onion, tomato, mushroom, carrot, bell pepper, cauliflower, cucumber, young corn, and a lot more.  

NOTE: Learn how to make Pizza from cook books and the internet. "Pizza is in the crust," they say, but ready made dough and crust are available at many supermarkets cum instruction on how to make pizza, particularly at home. Cook with the kids. Ask them their preferences in style and  toppings.  Avoid high cholesterol and too much fat, spices and salt. ~

12 Oddities in Nature. Can you identify them?"

12 Oddities in Nature. Can you identify them?"

The things that stand out are often the oddities." Pierre Salinger- Standing Out

Dr Abe V Rotor

Photos by the author and Marlo Rotor  

1. Porcupine, real specimen or hand crafted?

2. Fruits are produced not from flowers, but directly from
special buds. What tree is this? Does its seed germinate
and grow into a tree?

3. This is highly prized as food to Asians.

4. Snails are hermaphroditic, but why do they still mate?

5. On whose lap does this cat find comfort and quiet?

6. Name the plants growing on this dead log.

7. What will the doomed caterpillar become?

8. It's tough, grows radially, and clings on dead trunk like shelf.

9. It's all skin, its owner makes the loudest and longest love
song among trees.

10.  It has two pairs of legs per somite or segment. It feigns dead curling into a wheel with its soft belly inside and the thick plates serving as armor.  

11. It looks like a green grasshopper, master of mimicry, you might miss it among the leaves and stems of its host tree.

12. You find it in museums, fossilized primitive giant mollusk, which gave the concept of a prototype submarine in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. 

Answers:

1. It's real. The porcupine is indigenous to the Palawan. It is now in the list of highly endangered species. St Paul University Museum QC.

2. Siniguelas ( sarguelas Ilk) - Spondias purpurea. This is exemption to the rule that fruits and seeds are products of pollination and fertilization. Siniguelas can't be propagated by seed, it is by cuttings. Just cut a good branch, the girth of a man's arm, a meter or two in length and plant it on well drained loam soil. Plant along fences and field borders.

3. Edible sea urchin (maritangtang Ilk), an aphrodisiac.

4. An hermaphrodite has both gametes - sperm and egg. Seldom does fertilization and zygote formation take place in the individual. Copulation is necessary to prevent inbreeding. Exchange of genes is necessary. During mating, the first to penetrate is the male. At another time, it plays the role of female.

5. Icon of a Paulinian sister, St Paul University Museum QC, reading the Holy Book. PHOTO

6. Growths are not of plants but saprophytes (tainga ng daga or Auricularia) and lichens (association of algae and fungi).

7. It will become fossilized. If embedded in resin, the fossil will be visible through the clear amber.

8. Shelf mushroom.

9. Cicada. It's the male that sings; the female is mute.

10. Millipede, Class Diplopoda, relative of the insects and spiders, centipedes - they all belong to Phylum Arthropoda. 

11. Walking stick, originally classified under Orthoptera, the order of insects.

12. Nautillus.  The fictional submarine in the novel is named after this livbing marine fossil.  The captain in Nautillus is Captain Nemo. ~

A Wonderful World of Transition

 A Wonderful World of Transition 
Babies to Toddlers 
Dr Abe V Rotor

  Manniquin is almost real in pictures and on TV screen; 

 let a child touch it to overcome the Thomasic syndrome, 

and to grow out early from fantasy into the real world,

 where innocence, like clay, is molded into its true form.      

It's Dreamland, where fairies and gnomes roam 

in a garden, among flowers and butterflies;  

dwarves sitting on toadstool, nymphs singing,

Oh, how we all wish childhood never dies. 

Wonder why a honeybee visits the water;

why stars come down;

swim with wings, fly with fins don't matter,

stars and sun are one.    

 

 Fly on balloon into the sky;

no, you're not living in cartoon;

let time bring you to the real world, 

don't hurry up too soon. 

 Learn to eat and drink the grownups' way,
imitate Mommy, shh... don't cry; 
it's biological, birdlings in their nest do 
until they have wings to fly.  

It's a boat

No, it's a ship; 

 it's a pool,

No, it's the sea

with your daddy.

Are you living a simple life? Evaluate yourself.

A Personal Workshop Guide for 2019

Dr Abe V Rotor

Check if you are practicing each of the following: There can be no step-by-step guide to simplify your life. 

However, these are important reminders. Do these apply to you?

1. Make a list of your top 4-5 important things.

2. Evaluate your commitments.

3. Evaluate your time.

4. Simplify work tasks.

5. Learn to say no.

6. Make a Most Important Tasks (MITs) list each day.

7. Spend time alone.

8. Go for quality, not quantity.
9. Stay longer at home and enjoy life, 

10. Create an easy-to-maintain home.
11. Carry less stuff.

12. Simplify your budget.

13. Leave space around things in your day.

14. Live closer to work/school.

15. Always ask: Will this simplify my life?
16. Limit your communications.
17. Get rid of what you don’t need.

18. Get rid of the big items.

19. Clean /Edit your rooms.

20. Limit your buying habits.

21. Spend time with people you love.

22. Eat slowly.

23. Streamline your life.

24. Learn to live frugally.

25. Learn what “enough” is.

26. Eat healthy.

27. Exercise.

28. Declutter before organizing.

29. Find inner simplicity.

30. Find a creative outlet for self-expression.

Acknowledgement: Internet Illustrations

Heart of a Living Rock

Dr Abe V Rotor

Batungan - a rock formation in Mandaon, Masbate.

I entered the heart of this living rock,
hollow and eerie;
bats and strange creatures lurk in the dark;
it's a scary story.

Years after I visited this scene once more;
and stayed longer;
I saw shadows moving in the rock's core;
it's a story to wonder.

It speaks of an allegory and history
where man was born;
when man lived a simple life and was free,
happy and at home.