TREES

Coconut Tree

The Philippines is blessed to have grown coconuts in abundance.  The Philippines ranks as one of the world's largest coconut producing country.

The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera), is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos.  The term coconut can refer to the entirecoconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which, botanically, is a drupe, a nut. The spelling coconut is an archaic form of the word.  The term is derived from 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish coco, meaning "head" or "skull", from the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features.  Human beings have long been benefited from out of its medicinal, food, cosmetics, and other uses.

Coconuts are part of the daily diets of many people. Coconuts are different from any other fruits because they contain a large quantity of "water" and when immature they are known as tender-nuts or jelly-nuts and may be harvested for drinking. When mature, they still contain some water and can be used as seednuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell and coir from the fibrous husk. The endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, becoming the edible coconut "flesh".  When dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are commonly used in cooking and frying; coconut oil is also widely used in soaps and cosmetics. The clear liquid coconut water within is a refreshing drink. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating. It also has cultural and religious significance in many societies that use it.

Narra Tree

Narra, also called Asana,  any of several timber trees of the genus Pterocarpus of the pea family (Fabaceae or Leguminosae). The name refers especially to the hard wood, noted for its ability to take a high polish, that is derived from the trees. Narra wood is used for cabinetwork; it is usually red or rose colour, often variegated with yellow, and is hard and heavy. The trunk of the tree is surrounded (or, occasionally, supported) by huge buttresses extending outward and upward for about 5 m (15 feet); these are sometimes made into tabletops, the pattern of the grain and the colouring being hardly equaled by any other timber. A small chip of the wood placed in water soon takes on an opalescent colour because of a substance in the wood cells. Narra wood is known also as Burmese rosewood, Andaman redwood, and kiabooca wood.

Lansones Tree    

Lansium domesticum, also known as langsat, buahluku or lanzones, is a species of tree in the Mahogany family.  The plant, which originates from western Southeast Asia, bears edible fruit. It is the provincial flower for the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. Lanzones is a tree which grows up to a height of about 30 meters with trunk 75 cm in diameter. However, cultivated trees are only 5-10 m in height. Inflorescences bearing perfect flowers emerge from the trunk and largest branches. The fruit is a berry with 1-3 seeds, enveloped by a fleshy aril. Some cells may consist of aril tissue without developed seeds.

The fruit is always eaten fresh by squeezing it until the skin splits, and then the arils, which may have or without seeds, are freed from their segments. Those whitish arils are the ones that are eaten.

Seedless fruits may be bottled in syrup. The dried fruit peels have been used also to drive mosquitoes away by burning them with charcoal.