Dita trees now bursting in fragrant bloom

YESTERDAY’S highlight for me who lives in the Metro Manila area with 12 million other souls, was a trip to Pasig, an old suburb of Manila. Named after the river Pasig and for years a quiet, tucked away town as Manila expanded and grew, it is now caught in the vortex of its urban conditions. But some things from the past remain.

My friend Patsy, descendant of a long line of Pasigueños continuously residing in a 200year-old house, excitedly texted the night before that when she came home from Baguio that night she noted that the three Dita ( Alstonia scholaris) trees—a huge mother tree and two progeny— in her backyard had burst into their annual, ephemeral, fragrant flowers. The aroma engulfs the town center at night. Her house is diagonally across the church.

The trees are remarkably tall and my arms cannot enclose the mother tree’s trunk. It is surely an ancient tree that is about between 20 to 30 meters tall and very straight. It is against the garden wall on one side and the house on the other, not much room to expand, to be factual. But somehow the tree was able to stretch way above the two-story house and in bloom is a sight to see. It is literally all flowers overpowering the leaves which while still on the branches are mere backdrops to the showy, greenish white blooms which have a conical shape.

Dita is not an endemic Philippine tree. It is fast becoming a favorite of landscapers. The reason is that even as young adults, they can actually be balled out without suffering the consequences of insult and decline (termed “tampo”— sulking—in Pilipino). Serendra in Bonifacio Global City has chosen Dita trees for its landscaping and they are doing well and also in bloom at this time.

If one is alert enough, other Dita trees in bloom can be spotted in parts of the city. In Santa Ana, the residents were able to save the Dita tree along Pedro Gil Street near the market when SM built their grocery there by appealing to the corporation who graciously listened and redesigned the structure to accommodate the tree.

Over in Baguio SM has stirred a hornet’s nest with their proposed 5- storey parking building next to their SM Mall on Luneta Hill, in the center of Baguio. It has caused great concern among residents and Baguio lovers that about a hundred pine trees will have to be sacrificed for the building as well as an open space used up, or given up, for another concrete building. In fairness, this is happening all over Baguio with mountains and hillsides being carved up to accommodate huge concrete buildings. In the process open spaces, trees, plants, grass, everything that defines Baguio to most of us is being obliterated in the name of progress.

In the matter of trees, developers and their contractors claim they will be balled and replanted. There are very few trees that can withstand such traumatic treatment whether there is a balling machine or not. A perfect example is Bonifacio Global City which had a treasure trove of trees from endemic ones to the century old acacias that defined its few streets. They were supposedly balled out before the earthmoving. I saw what they looked like when the developers invited me to see them after I wrote several columns expressing outrage. What I saw was that the huge trees could not be balled out and therefore were absent and dead. The ones that were on exhibit were saplings, and the few real adults were on their way to the next world. Knowing pine trees and their roots, I seriously doubt if adult pines can be balled out and live.

No need to give the sermon that trees are anti- pollution, beautiful, natural and an indispensable part of the environment. If some of us still do not know it, it must be because we do not want to.

But for those who do, there are the Dita trees in bloom right now. Try seeing them at Serendra. My trip to Pasig to see the three Ditas in Patsy’s backyard made my day.

miongpin@yahoo.com