Makiling Botanical FOREST!

     In our field trip, our last stop was the Makiling Botanical Garden. When we first heard the name “Makiling Botanical Garden”, we first thought that it is just like a small garden you see everyday in people’s backyards. Well, no. In fact, it is a large tract of tropical forest containing endemic floras. Then maybe its name should be changed to “Makiling Botanical Forest”! Nah, forget that we said.

     We expected that since it is called a botanical garden, we will learn about plants. We will probably learn about different species of flora endemic to the Philippines and on which division they belong to, since we were taking up Kingdom Plantae then.

     During our hike through its steep and slippery path, we encountered a lot of plants, from the smallest moss to the tallest trees. One of the Science Adventurers, Miguel, then noticed something green in the trunk of a tree. Wondering what it was, he asked Teacher Rye what the green thing was, and Teacher Rye answered that it was lichen. So during the hike, we discovered how lichens looks like.

     Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic association of a fungus with photosynthetic partner. This photosynthetic partner can usually be green algae. The characteristics of lichens are very different from those of isolated fungus and algae. Lichen can also survive in some extreme environments like arctic tundra, hot deserts, and toxic slag heaps.

Lichen  Flavoparmelia caperata

1. Name
   Common Name: Lichen
   Scientific Name: Flavoparmelia caperata

2. Characteristics

     Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a dependent union of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner. This photosynthetic partner can usually be green algae. The characteristics of lichens are very dissimilar from those of stray fungus and algae. Lichen can also survive in some extreme environments like arctic tundra, hot deserts, and toxic slag piles.

      We chose this organism because of its interesting features and maybe because Miguel really likes his topic in reporting: Fungi!

     Of course when we went home from the field trip, we were very tired. After going to the sites, our long and tiring walk in the Makiling Botanical Garden, and the long but very entertaining bus rides, who wouldn’t feel tired? It's hard to say good bye to UP LB but we were happy that we learned a lot of things as we expected! Probably, the most important lesson that we learned is to take down notes and learn how to explore the small or large things in our environment. And of course, the most important lesson in this field trip is to HAVE FUN! We will never forget this learning experience because it was our last field trip in the Learning Tree. This was the field trip where we learned the most things and probably even the best field trip ever thanks to our one and only favorite science teacher; TEACHER RYAN!