Greening the city with native trees

IN a perfect world, there will be a park within a five-minute walk from your house. In the Philippines, however, urban parks are rare. They are mostly found in some gated subdivisions or cemeteries. There are national parks like Rizal Park and the Quezon Memorial Circle but very few Filipinos can have access to a park within five minutes. We are lucky if we even see a tree, more so a native one.

Our village park has decades-old trees like narra, kupang (Parkia timoriana) and acacia. It was there that I learned there are right and wrong trees depending on geography. What we think are acacia trees lining McKinley Avenue and UP Diliman aren't actually acacia. They are commonly known as rain trees (Samanea saman) originating from South America. The Philippine native acacia is Acacia confusa. It is smaller and rare. I have never seen one. Rain trees were introduced to the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period and were widely used by American landscape planners. They are well-loved because they have a majestic canopy with a silhouette of lace-like leaves.