Sightings of blooming rafflesia, a rare endemic parasitic plant in the wilderness of Apayao province, have continued to inspire officials and residents here to protect and preserve the last nature frontier of Cordillera Region.<\/p>\n
\u201cNature really glows differently when protected,\u201d Dorothy Joy Cayaba, officer-in-charge of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office-Calanasan (CENRO-Calanasan), said as she confirmed to the Philippine News Agency the presence of this exotic beauty on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
According to Cayaba, the parasitic plant, also known as corpse flower, was sighted on May 21 during a delineation and ground validation activities of the CENRO-Calanasan and the Community Environment and the Provincial Government of Apayao.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team documented this while mapping out the management zones within the Biosphere Reserve of the yApayaos (BRyA) in Calanasan, Apayao,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Identified as Rafflesia cf.leonardi, this species is known for its fleshy, saucer-sized bloom and distinct odor.<\/p>\n
It is classified as endangered and endemic to Luzon, adding to the growing list of significant biodiversity records found in Apayao forest in recent years.<\/p>\n
Among those found in Apayao are a cluster of Rafflesia lagascae sighted in Barangay Eva, Calanasan town last year, and the discovery of two other endemic plant species identified as Medinilla calanasan, a new plant species, and Vaccinium kilangensis, a wild shrub discovered in the highlands of Mount Kilang Pass along the border of Apayao and Ilocos Norte.<\/p>\n
Eagles have also been spotted in the area in past years.<\/p>\n
“As we uncover the hidden natural treasures of this region, our resolve to protect them only grows. Every discovery reinforces our goal to establish Apayao as a premier center for biodiversity conservation, fostering a better understanding of the broad relationship of the communities thereat with these life support systems they gain from protecting their local environment,\u201d Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Cordillera Administrative Region regional executive director Engineer Paquito Moreno Jr. said in a statement. (PNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Officials continue to strengthen biodiversity protection and sustainable environmental management programs in Apayao.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment"],"zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":{"nxtgen_comments":[{"2052":"nakakatuwa na may bagong sightings habang may validation work\r","2053":"sana mas dumami pa ang research sa apayao forests \ud83d\udd0e\r","2054":"malaki ang role ng communities sa pag-alaga ng forest\r","2055":"maganda ito, pero dapat may long-term protection plan\r"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}