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Friday, September 08, 2006
Peña: A world record?
By Rox Peña
THE Green Philippine Highways (GPH) Program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was a success. Secretary Angelo T. Reyes was quoted as saying that more than 800,000 trees were planted last August 25. The DENR website however has not posted any official announcement on the matter, probably due to the ongoing validation being done by a well-known auditing firm.
While the primary goal of the project is to plant trees along major highways to neutralize pollution emitted by vehicle emissions, it is an added accomplishment if the feat will land in the Guinness Book of World Records. It will be an honor to be recognized as a nation of tree planters.
I don’t know which world record is being challenged. There’s one mentioned in news reports on "most number of trees planted simultaneously" made last year by 16,317 people at 18 sites across India's Andhra Pradesh state. They planted a total of 300,587 trees. I tried to confirm this in the website of Guinness, but the site contains limited information and this particular record was not mentioned.
I was able to confirm the other one, for the "Most Number of Trees Planted in 24 Hours by a Group of 300 People". The story is posted in the website of the Indian State of Nagapattinam, complete with a picture of the Guinness certificate. The group planted 80,244 trees on Dec. 4, 2002.
Which one will be broken? Let’s just wait for DENR’s official announcement. But even if there’s no world record, the big winner in this activity is the environment. Congratulations to DENR, especially to the’ men and women of the Region 3 office led by Regional Executive Director (RED) Regidor de Leon, who really worked hard for this project.
* * * * *
Balacat trees. The GPH project emphasized the planting of indigenous tree species. In my hometown Mabalacat, I wanted to plant the native Balacat, the trees once abundant in the area and from which the town’s name was derived. I could not find any seedlings. There are only a few surviving Balacat trees, one of which is located in front of the Our Lady of Grace Parish Church in Poblacion, Mabalacat.
I started doing some research and even sought the help of the DENR in clarifying my confusion about the tree’s scientific name, which according to some write-ups on the town’s history, is Ziziphus Zonulata Balaco. I was surprised that there is no information on this specie in the Internet. What I found is that Ziziphus Zonulata is a synonym of Ziziphus Talanai, the plant’s current name.
According to the features of the leaves taken from the tree in Poblacion by the DENR’s research office, the tree is indeed Ziziphus Talanai. In fact, in their reference materials, this type of tree is said to be abundant in Pampanga. This scientific name was confirmed too by Alex Castro, author of a book on the history of Mabalacat.
I think the "Balaco" in the tree’s old scientific name, as it appears in some information material, is erroneous. Plants only have two names, the genus and the specific epithet. The third name attached to it refers to the author. Blanco, author and botanist, may have been written as Balaco. I leave this matter to the historians.
So much for this scientific jargon. I took time confirming this information simply because I wanted to be sure I will propagate the right specie. Early in my research, I found out that there?s another tree called Balacat-Gubat, but I was informed by DENR that it belongs to another tree family.
I am appealing to all Mabalaqueños. If you know of any surviving Balacat tree in your area, please send me an e-mail @ rox_pena@yahoo.com or call 893-0403.
"Ikalat tala ding Balacat king Mabalacat!"
(September 8, 2006 issue)
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