There’s a quarter century of tradition behind Dynasty Court’s...
2010-03-23
Mike Baños
Balita
The Forgotten Trees of Auld Kagay-an
By Mike Banos
Along with the old houses, street names and landmarks which
have become a part of the heritage of Cagayan de Oro, are some trees and their
fruits which seem to have inexplicably disappeared over time.
Two trees which have figured prominently in the culture and
heritage of Cagayan de Oro
are the Lambago
and Kayam.
"Our place was once known as Kalambagohan because of
the abundance of lambago," Roy Gaane, president and founder of Kagayanon
International, recalls. The Lambago
tree (Hibiscus tiliaceus) is a member of the Malvaceae tree
family that thrives in low altitude areas like seashores, riverbanks and other
areas reached by tidal streams.
Lambago blossom
Long-time resident Titus Velez reminisces how the lambago
produced a yellow flower with some red stripes. As the day came and went, the
flowers deepened to orange and then to red before falling off. The branches of
the tree would bend over time and the wood has been used for seacraft,
firewood, wood carving, rope and many other uses.
"They serve as anti-erosion sa mga riverbanks, trapping
silt during the seasonal floods of the Cagayan River,” Velez said. “We use to
climb this tree from one tree to another. Kasi
almost interlocking ang mga branches. The branches are also very flexible
and strong even the small ones. We also use the branches as an improvised
diving board. During summer we would enjoy its shade.”
“Under the tree we would cook banana with ginamos and
one bottle of coke. We could sleep in the branches while bringing the old
transistor radio (the ones with Nora Aunor's face on the dial), while listening
to dramas from dyHP. We also fly out kites there, well actually on a small
clearing besides the trees,” he added.
"Those were the days. The last lambago I saw was
along Iponan river but it's not there anymore. I'm not sure if there are still lambago
if we go upstream. I think it is a victim of rapid urbanization."
On the other hand, the Kayam was
better known to elder Kagay-anons for its nut which was a popular delicacy
during their childhood days in the city.
The Polynesian or Tahitian Chestnut, locally known as Kayam, showing a
ripened fruit and how it looks peeled after cooking.
"I remember
that my mother had a suki who would
deliver cooked or boiledkayam
to the house," wrote Wendy Ramos-Garcia in her reminisces entitled Memories
of the Old Hometown. "I haven't seen kayam for a long, long time now."
"It tastes like castañas (chestnuts) except it
is bigger,” Gaane said. “ You can look it up in Google under the name of Tahitian
Chestnut or Polynesian Chestnut."
The tree was even linked in popular culture to one of the city's barangays.
Young Kayam tree. Adult Kayam tree.
"When I was still in grade school, there were kayam trees in Consolacion, then known
as the red light district of Cagayan," Gaane said. "When men who
patronized the district were asked where they had been, they would say, Nang
kayam 'mi . It became notorious and that was probably why the trees were
cut."
Gaane also recalls other fruits of his childhood in Cagayan de Oro but which
are now hard-to-find.
"There was the alubijid tree once found by the
side of the Provincial Capitol," he said. "Its fruit is evergreen and
its seed is hairy like that of the siniguelas except that the alubijid
is round and big as a tennis ball. It probably can still be found in the
town of Alubijid. It's crunchy like an apple, green, with hairy kernel. Just
like the pangi fruit which was once
found in Barangay Tagpangi. It must still be there,” he added.
Gaane also recalls a fruit better known as the cherry which was brownish and about the
size of lanzones.
“There used to be a tree at the Kempski compound that later
became Rizal Theatre. Being a family friend, I used to get my cherries
there.”
When he was a grade schooler in Ateneo de Cagayan (now
better known as Xavier University), Gaane said he was a patron of the cherries
which used to be sold by the Neri’s who had a property right next to the old
gymnasium.
“I remember that cherry tree which
belonged to the family of Luisito Neri,” Ramos-Garcia said. “It was delicious
but the tree was full of thorns.”
Jazmin Ramos-Sumalinog, eldest daughter of former Pilgrim
Institute High School Principal Severino Ramos recalls they used to have a
cherry tree in their front yard.
“Didto mi sa taassa cherry pirmi magsaka to get the dark
plum-colored ones. Daghan gusto mopalit when the fruits look so tempting
to passersby,” she said. “Dante, Bobom, Totic and myself agreed
to own part of the tree as our respective branches, so that we get fruits
only from our assigned branch. Nakaka
miss !”
“The cherry is known as cereales
in Davao and serali in the Visayas,”
said Sylvia Aguhob, a food tech faculty from Xavier University’s College of
Agriculture. She said cherry trees
still line the pathway in the car park ofthe Southeast Asian Rural Social Leadership Institute (Searsolin) at the
Manresa campus of XU.
Another fruit which was once abundant in Carmen in what is
now the Golden Village was the susong
kabaw. "When ripe it is red and hairy like the mabolo but you only eat its flesh like the mangosteen,” Gaane
recalls. Like the cherry, he said he hasn’t seen one since his high school
days.
Susong Kabaw (photo courtesy of Marketman from Market Manila.)
Veteran journalist Ben Emata, who is now based in Los
Angeles, USA, also has fond memories of the susong
kabaw. "This is a sweet fruit that looks like the nipple of a
carabao,” he muses. “When I went hunting during my childhood days, susong kabaw were abundant side by side
with bayabas or guavas. I have not
seen this fruit for a very long time. It was not sold in the market since it
was a wild fruit."
Philippine Heritage gives Susong Kabaw’s scientific name as AnnonaceaeUvaria rufe and its found from Northern Luzon to Palawan and Mindanao
where it is known as the susong-kalabaw,
susog kaba, and a host of other regional variants.
(compiled by Mike Baños
with Roy Gaane, Wendy Ramos-Garcia, Ben Emata, Titus Velez and Sylvia Aguhob.
Special thanks to Market Man and Market Manila for the pictures of Susong Kabaw
and Cherries).
Lambago blossom
