Wild food plants or “survival plants” in our time of crisis

It's monsoon, the season of wild edible plants! 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

Survivors of force majeure, war, plane crash, shipwreck have a lot of lessons to share, among them are edible plants that kept them alive. 

• Talisay (Terminalia catappa) bears nut like fruits that contain small seeds that taste like almond. 

• Tibig (Ficus nota.) The fruits are edible and have a good flavor.  They are soft and fleshy when mature. 

• Isis (Ficus odorata) or isis because its rough leaves are used as natural sandpaper for utensil and wood.  Its fruits like tibig are edible.   

                                                       Papait (Mollogo oppositifolia)

• Balleba (Vallisnera) is an aquatic plant growing in clear streams, ponds and lakes, whose leaves appear like ribbon, hence it is also called ribbon grass. The leaves are gathered and served fresh with tomato, onion and salt.

• Apulid or water chestnut.  Our native apulid produces very small bulbs - only one-third the size of the Chinese or Vietnamese apulid.  It grows wild in places where water is present year round. It is boiled, peeled and served.  

• Aratiles (Muntingia calabura) bears plenty of tiny berries which are red to violet when ripe. It is sweet and somewhat aromatic.  

                                          Himba-ba-o or Alokong                                                (Alleanthus luzonicus)

• Wild sinkamas (Pacchyrhizus erosus) has enlarged roots which may remain in the soil even after the plants has dried up in summer. It is gathered and eaten raw. 

• Urai (Amaranthus spinosus). The plant become spiny as it matures. It is the very young plant that is gathered as vegetable. 

• Mulberry (Morus alba). Its leaves are the chief food of silkworm.  The fruits when ripe are purple to black, and while very small are juicy and fairly sweet. 

Bagbagkong, flower vegetable 

• Taro (Colocasia sp.). The Palawan gabi grows twice the height of man and produces a large corm.  There is a technique in preparing and cooking the corm. Or making starch out of it.  The key is thorough cleaning and cooking.  

• Gulasiman (Portulaca oleracea) has succulent leaves and stems which are cooked as vegetables.  

                        Banana blossom (Puso ng saging)

• Talinum ((Talinum triangulare). The succulent stems and leaves are gathered as vegetable.  

 .  Edible Fern (Pako’) - Athyrium esculentum); gulasiman or ngalog (Portulaca)

.  Male  flowers of squash (Cucurbita maxima) 

Saluyot tops (Corchorus olitorius) 

Other wild vegetables:

1. Young leaves of cassava or kamoteng kahoy (Manihot utilissima)
2. Petals of Gumamela (Hibiscus rosasinensis)
3. Young leaves of kamkamote (Ipomea triloba)
4. Amaranth or spinach (Amaranthus spinosus) - seedling stage
5. Flowers of madre de cacao or kakawate (Gliricida sepium)
6. Corm of banana (Musa sapientum)
7. Ubod or pith of maguey (Agave cantala)
8. Talinum (Talinum quadriculoare)

Alugbati (Basella rubra) is a twining plant with reddish stems and leaves. The tops are gathered as vegetable which is mucilaginous when cooked.

Male  flowers of squash (Cucurbita maxima

9. Flower of katuray (Sesbania grandiflora)
10. Corm of gabi (Colocasia esculenta)
11.    Edible Fern (Pako’) - Athyrium esculentum)
12.  Gulasiman or ngalog (Portulaca oleracea)  

Often referred to as wild food plants or hunger crops, these and many others, perhaps hundreds, provide an alternative source of food and nutrition on the grassroots in times of poor harvest and calamities like drought. Being native or indigenous they survive extreme conditions of the environment, they need very little care, if at all.

 Ethnobotany, the study of plants and their uses in primitive societies, is gaining recognition in the light of economic crisis. It offers a solution to poverty and malnutrition. Culinary delight comes in various food preparations from native vegetables.

                     Dampalit (Sesuvium portulacastrum)

NOTE: Add other wild food plants you know to this list. Make this topic a subject of research for your school and community.


 Top, clockwwise: pusa-pusa, tultulang,  talinum, kalunay (thorny amaranth, harvested while seedling)

MSG: Taste vs Health

MSG (Monosodium glutamate): Taste vs Health

Dr Abe V Rotor 

He died in his sleep in his car after a sumptuous lunch.  Suspect: MSG overdose.  I lost a very good friend.  

For whatever reason, that incident changed my life when it comes to food.  No MSG.  No to any of its aliases.    

No MSG at home. No to my wife, children and grandchildren; their health, happiness, and future are definitely the most precious investment in life.  We have joined the fast growing number of MSG liberated people around the world. 

                          

If you personally experience or observe in your family these signs and symptoms, give serious attention to a likely culprit - MSG.

            Here are proven grave effects of MSG: cancer, high blood pressure, obesity.

Stay healthy and happy: Avoid junk food. Go for fresh, natural food.  Commercially processed food is likely an MSG carrier.  Read the label carefully.  Don't be deceived by advertisement and product promotion.

Cook and eat at home. Do the marketing and cooking of your favorite recipes. Why don't you raise on your backyard fruits, vegetables, poultry, fish - and even process them for home consumption and the community market.  But No MSG and other artificial additives, please. ~

Enigma of the Coral Reef

Enigma of the Coral Reef

No ecosystem in the world is more vast, open 

and free than the coral reef.

Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor

Don a snorkel and a new world unfolds - the coral reef.

It is a forest under the sea, the counterpart of the forest we know on land. There are also equivalent trees like the giant Sargassum that grows several feet long; shrubs like the branching Gracillaria; cacti like the broad Padina; annuals like spongy Codium. Together with sea grasses, these seaweeds and hundreds of other species, form multi-storey greenery at varying depths the same way forests have the features of mountains, hills, caverns and cliffs.

The animals that live here are more varied and colorful than those on land, mimicking the prism of sunlight in water with all the splendor of the rainbow. There are fishes that are distinctly bright colored, and at night exude phosphorescence like neon lights. They borrow the shape of their surroundings, the corals and seaweeds, for both protection and aggression - all these are adaptations for survival.

On the coral reef food chains have more links, so to speak, and food webs more intricate, as both residents and transient organisms interact. No ecosystem in the world is more vast, open and free than the coral reef. It is also the most lavish. Even beauty itself. Living things and all their ornaments are irresistible to be awed and respected, holding an enigma that expands our imagination to fantasy that lures us to the sea and to love to fish and comb the reefs all day. To write poetry - and to paint.
And eerily dream. x x x

Adventure in Landscape Painting

"I was lost in the middle of a forest 

hidden by fog to its crest..."

                

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Rainforest sentinel AVR

Stately and colorful like a king,
     the cockatoo is lord of the realm;
greet and he will echo your call,
     and will follow to the screen.


Rivulets to streams comb the hills, AVR

The beginning of the great Nile lies somewhere
     on the glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro;
Hemingway wrote in the like of an idea untold,
     emerging, converging, to be true.


Downstream, AVR

I was lost in the middle of a forest
     hidden by fog to its crest;
trees blocked my path, my sight;
     t'was a stream I owe my life.


Cliff, AVR
A watchtower of my ancestors I revisited;
     once green and sacred,
now bare and empty, I found it instead,
     a history of the dead.


Angling and Loafing, AVR

The fish I caught may be small and few,
     but I am happiest though;
more than the flowing stream that I knew
     many great ideas grew.


Sitting Boat AVR

Wonder the fisherman at sundown,
     his boat by the bay sits;
to sea the whole night he's bound,
     while the world sleeps. ~

Sun and Blue Sky

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Unedited photo taken in Virac,Catanduanes, with Sony 

Cybershot camera, 7.2 mega pixels. October 20, 2011

Never aim at the sun, never, said my mentor,
     a rule I never forgot;
Photos I took, the sun at my side or back, 

      became pride of an art.

But art with no rules grew, and took over the helm; 

     take it from artists Picasso
and Van Gogh, their masterpieces with the sun
     burning in deep arctic blue. 

Wonder how the soul suffers when the body
     is hale yet unwilling;
and triumphs in the works of Milton and Monet, 

      their inner sun shining.~

"The child in me lives in a dragonfly."

"The child in me lives in a dragonfly."

Dr Abe V Rotor

                                    Red dragonfly Order Odonata

The child in me lives, it lives forever.

It lives in a dragonfly

Many years ago I captured for fun.

Ah, you brought me back to my yesteryears

When I would run to catch you in the field.

               The sound of your wings was music to me.

Then, when my childish whim was satisfied,

I longingly set you free. ~

Global Warming is Creating a New Art Movement (Part 1)

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Fiery Cyclone in the Sky 

It is a storm but its eye is not of calm,
sultry but neither coy nor kind;
seeking a home of its own to settle down,
like the monster of Frankenstein. 

Man-made Forest Fire (AVR 2015)

Prometheus defied of his gift of fire to man
by man himself unrelenting in greed,
adoring Midas and other gods on Zeus side;
  Hercules in our midst is what we need.

Note: In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the supreme god Zeus and gave it to man for the betterment of his life. As punishment, he was bound in an island and tortured by a flesh-eating eagle. He was later rescued by Hercules. 

Global Warming is Creating a New Art Movement (Part 2)

Global Warming is Creating a New Art Movement 
Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor

Coral Reef Deforestation  

When the sea rises and buries the shoals and sandbars,

the sea grass and coral reef;

when the sun bears hard on the fringes of sea and land,

requiem hums eerie and grief.   

Oh, Art - what gift do you bring in suffering and lament,

but catharsis however brief. 

Mountain Desertification 

When the wind hot and dry sweeps over hills and mountains

all day long, freezing cold in the night;

and rain after a long absence brings gales and hurricanes;   

the landscape turns into a pitiful sight.  

What movement can an artist recall in the long history of art? 

too far out romanticism and classicism;

realism lost to the lens, impressionism to varied abstract art -  

welcome Dali-Miro'-Ernst surrealism.  ~

Global Warming is Creating a New Art Movement (Part 3)

Global Warming is Creating a New Art Movement (Part 3)
Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor

Onslaught of the Glowing Armyworms 
Armyworms are so-called because of their gregarious, voracious and they suddenly appear and attack. When food is scarce and environmental conditions unfavorable, they become wild and uncontrollable. Such is the tendency of a bandwagon, building up into a mob.

They come in an army strong in spring, 

rising from quiescence with the first rain,

greed and abandon the rule of their game

spoiling all rules, free-for-all, and insane.

But only when cornered the biological

instinct reigns, survival the ultimate aim,

where nature lost its order, its pristine,

by man craving for wealth, power, fame.  

How similar a pattern, could it be the genes

dictating? Creatures behaving like beast,

and man in neither in need nor in plenty, 

fights in army whether in war or peace. ~   

Degeneration of the Roses

Global warming has caused many problems in plants and animals. Hybrids are among the first to succumb, while the native species or varieties are the last. Their survival secret? Natural resistance built through countless generations in the open. As a rule. hybrids can't be left alone - they will revert to man-directed lines which are unstable and uncertain. The failure of science is when its progeny is abandoned or misguided.

"My luv is a red, red rose," in romanticism gone,
"Paper roses," a song of love lost and lament;
and Gertrude Stein, wanting of the right word, 
said, "A rose is a rose is a rose," is truly meant.  

The rose is very sick, not only in social norms,
it is sick with the loss of its indigenous genes,
it is sick with the pollution of its genetic pool,
manipulated to suit the market by all means.

While the whole world grows hotter each day;
Carbon in air traps heat; it too, turns into acid 
falling as toxic rain, dousing the red in the rose.
Where have all the roses gone, their lovely bid? ~   

Quo vadis, Homo? Where are we humans going?

 Quo vadis, Homo?

Where are we humans going?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Auguste Rodin's The Thinker

Quo vadis, Homo sapiens? Where is man gong?

A young man who was in love asked the computer, “What is love?”

Whereupon, came a prompt answer – in a number of definitions, technical and literary.

“How does it feel to be in love?” the young man continued. This time the computer did not respond. He entered his query once more, but still there was no response. After several attempts, the computer finally gave up, and printed: I cannot feel.

Spending more time with the computer deprives millions, mostly children, of participating in health promoting games and resistance-building exposure in nature. Our children are no longer children of nature; they are captives of education and media, of malls and cafes.

They like to think that the mind is like the computer, that the more information it acquires the better it is to the person.

This is not so. Not when it pertains to health, not with the ability to arrive at correct decisions, not when and where survival is needed. And not when it comes to matters of love.

And here are our children spending most of their waking hours with an “intelligent” thing in the shape of a box, a thing that has no feeling at all!

Even when the computer can tell us of all kinds of ailments in the world, it cannot comfort us. It cannot cure us. It will only worsen our allergies, our asthma.

It cannot reciprocate our friendship, our love, our compassion. Because a robot is a robot is a robot.

Diseases and many forms of human misery are masked by the Good Life. These are surreptitiously spreading around the world causing many complications, untold sufferings, and death. They turn into pandemic as they merge with other diseases – HIV-AIDS, obesity, diabetes, accidents, are becoming common cases.

The success of human beings and all living things today depends on fitness acquired through Evolution and Adaptation. Evolution refers to the “Survival of the Fittest,” through eons of time; while Adaptation is the ability of organisms to adjust to dynamic changes of the environment.

The Four Attributes of Man

• Homo sapiens “Man the Wise”

• Homo faber "Man the Maker” or “Working Man"

• Homo ludens “Playing Man” or "Sportsman"

• Homo spiritus “Praying Man” or "Reverent"

(Deus faber “God the Creator”) Should Man also play the role of God?

Homo sapiens, the Patient

(From The Men Who Play God by Dr Arturo B Rotor)

“Of all God’s creatures, there is no species more guilt-ridden, confused and self-destructive than man. Fear, remorse and frustration underlie his basic behavior probably as a result of his forbears having been driven out of the Garden of Eden…”

A corner of Eden, in acrylic by Abe V Rotor

“Man kills not for food, he eats when he is not hungry, he mates in and out of season. His suicidal tendencies are unique. While the lemmings drown themselves as a result of reduced food supplies, man will willingly cultivate cancer of his lungs by smoking poisonous plants, convert his liver into a hobnailed atrophic mass of dead tissues with alcohol, or remove himself from the control of his mind with narcotics…

“An important feature of his personality is that the more developed the creature and the more successful, the more likely is he to suffer of neurosis.” The genes bearing these characteristics have not been identified, but seems to be transmitted paternally and maternally.

“While among all other species, infection heads mortality and morbidity lists, among Homo sapiens, neurosis is the underlying cause of ninety percent of all illnesses.”

"As a matter of fact, in the big cities and centers of population, the archetype of the successful executive in the hypertensive, the ulcer-patient, the tranquilizer-dependent. We believe that for an in-depth study of tension or anxiety, in all its typical and atypical manifestations, man is a better subject to study than any other organism.”

Landscape Scenes in the Mind

Landscape Scenes in the Mind

Dr Abe V Rotor  

Ricefields and Stream in pastel (9" x 12") by Chris Ann Rotor, 11 (circa 1995)

Where are the birds in the sky, and birds that meet the day,

The gentle folks in their chores, children lilting in their play?

They are all there in imagery that many people cannot see,

But to a child artist the scene is complete, pure and free.

 Monsoon has arrived in acrylic (9" x 20") AVR 2020

A flock of white birds came flying over gathering clouds,

Rivulets into stream playing the music of a dozen harps; 

Torrential rains followed down the hills into avalanche;

It is Nature's call disguised as beautiful in the arts. ~ 

Nature's Sweet Lies

                     

Nature's Sweet Lies
Dr Abe V Rotor

Deceit and conceit in a duo,
Makes one believe or doesn't know
To accept things or analyze
Nature's own sweet and gentle lies.


A pair of locust in camouflage and mimicry 

The locust in summer is brown,
A lonely creature yet a clown;
Full in monsoon of hues of green,
Grotesque and mean I've ever seen.

The moth wears dust to hide its frame,
At dusk wakes up and play the game
Of feigning dead, devoid of spark;
Its enemies think it's all bark.

Where comes the trigger, that I know,
Hormones by signal freely flow,
Masking colors, painting a view,
To match a perfect scenario.

Deceit and conceit in a duo,
Makes one believe or doesn't know
To accept things or analyze
Nature's own sweet and gentle lies.~

KALAYAAN 2020 Reading: Remembering the Philippines' Foremost Biologists: Dr Deogracias V Villadolid and Dr Eduardo A Quisumbing

In honor of my two foremost professors whose works changed the way we live today
Dr Abe V Rotor

Father of Philippine Fisheries Education 

Dr Villadolid introduced tilapia (Tilapia nilotica and T mozambica) in the Philippines in 1950 when he was Director of the Bureau of Fisheries. He also initiated fisheries education in the country. For this reason, he is known as the Father of Fisheries Education in the Philippines.

“One of the country’s outstanding biologists, Dr. Deogracias V. Villadolid devoted the last years of his life to the advancement of research in fisheries in the Philippines and in the Indo-Pacific area. He contributed a great deal to the sustained study and interest in the biology of fishes, especially cultivation and conservation as well as to the promotion of the fishery industry.” - Dr. Juan Salcedo, Jr., then Chairman of the National Research Council of the Philippines.

Foremost Philippine zoologist and botanist (Dr Deogracias V Villadolid and Dr Eduardo A Quisumbing)

Filipino botanist, Eduardo Quisumbing was a noted expert in the medicinal plants of the Philippines. He was author of more than 129 scientific articles. many on orchids. Eduardo Quisumbing served as the Director of the National Museum of the Philippines, where he rebuilt the Herbarium. The plant "Saccolabium quisumbingii" is named in honor of Eduardo Quisumbing. His book, Medicinal Plants of the Philippines is still the most important reference in botany, pharmacology and related subjects. 

Like Dr Villadolid, Dr Quisumbing, was my professor and critic in graduate research. It is a rare opportunity and honor to have been under these great Filipino scientists which enriched my preparation in my career as public servant and university professor. It is above all, for their humility, compassion, and dedication to service, other than their genius that they are and will always be remembered.    

Tambal or Brisbane Lily - Floral Beauty and Folkloric Remedy

Tambal  or Brisbane Lily  

- Floral Beauty and Folkloric Remedy  

Photos by Dr Abe V Rotor 

I found this unique plant in an unexpected place in our backyard in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, beside a leaning mango tree, where there is little sunshine, and the surrounding is shaded and cool.  The plant simply emerged just after a shower in May. There it stood dainty and proud, with immaculate white compound flowers perched on a sturdy stalk. Though the plant is short lived, it made our summer memorable to my family and our friends. 

 

 

Eurycles amboinensis (L.) Lindl or Proiphys amboinensis L Herb; Family Amaryllidaceae. It is native to countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and the  Philippines. It is called Brisbane Lily in Australia. This species occurs naturally in colonies in light shaded areas of the rainforest, and on open and coastal areas.  

Folkloric Uses of Tambal 

- Ethnic use of the leaves reduce swelling and chewing the bulbs is said to 

  relieve the  effects of poisonous fish.*
- Small doses of raw bulbs ingested to induce vomiting.
- Leaves used externally as anti-rheumatic topical.
- Subanens in Zamboanga del Sur apply poultice of leaves and roots on inflammation.
- In the Bicol area, fire-warmed lightly-oiled young leaves are applied to abdomen for stomach aches, to the forehead for headaches, and to the chest for colds and chest congestion. Also applied over sprains and fractures.
- Bulb chewed to relived oppression and giddiness resulting from eating poisonous fish or crustaceans.
- In Indonesian Pre-Christian era, plant has recorded use for the treatment of small pox: A plaster or compress was made from leaves and placed on wounds to draw pus.
In Malaysia, the plant used to prevent spirits from haunting houses.

References: Philippine Medicinal Plants (Internet);  

*Philippine Ornamental Plants - Mona Liza Steiner,1952