From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 2, April 2023.
By Manuela Dal Forno and Jun Wen
On January 11, 2023, we started our journey to the Philippines, Manuela Dal Forno from Fort Worth Botanic Garden in Texas and Jun Wen from the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Little did we know then what adventures would wait for us in the Philippines. After traveling around 40 hours “door-to-door,” we arrived at our host institution, Central Mindanao University (CMU) in Maramag, Bukidnon Province on Mindanao Island.
This journey, “Expedition 4,” was the fourth of a larger botanical project which started in 2018. For this most recent expedition, we worked in the Philippines for a total of 29 days and visited two main locations: Mt. Balatukan, part of the Mount Balatukan Range Natural Park in Misamis Oriental Province, in northern Mindanao; and Dinagat Islands, where we visited multiple municipalities, including Loreto, Basilisa, San Jose, Libjo and Tubajon. Toward the end of the trip, we collected in two additional localities, Mt. Musuan and Mt. Nebo, in the Valencia Valley of Bukidnon Province relatively close to our base at CMU. We were very fortunate to have the help of our Filipino colleagues who worked on the logistical details, such as meal planning, lodging, and securing permits ahead of time with the local communities and authorities. We especially thank Academician Dr. Victor Amoroso, Dr. Fulgent Coritico, Dr. Florfe Acma and Ms. Joie Lagumbay at CMU for their hard work on all the logistics for the expedition, and for the support from the local governments and communities.
Our trips were largely covered through two NSF-funded grants (DEB 1754697 and 1754667), namely, “Collaborative Research: Plant Discovery in the southern Philippines.” The main PI for this project is Peter Fritsch from the Fort Worth Botanic Garden (FWBG, more specifically BRIT, or Botanical Research Institute of Texas), with co-PIs Darin Penneys (University of North Carolina at Wilmington, WNC), Manuela Dal Forno (FWBG), and Dan Nickrent (Cornell University).
The trip had 31 participants including several colleagues from different institutions. Participants from the Philippines included colleagues from Central Mindanao University (CMU), University of the Philippines-Manila (UP-M), Bukidnon State University, Mindanao State University (MSU), University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UP-LB), University of Southeastern Philippines, National Museum of the Philippines, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Participants from outside of the Philippines included colleagues from California Academy of Sciences, Missouri Botanical Garden, Botanischer Garten, Freie Universität Berlin (BGBM), University of California Botanical Garden, and Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (US). In addition to this core group of participants, for each location we visited, we also worked with 10–20 locals from that specific barangay (native name equivalent to village, or the smallest political unit).
The Philippine archipelago is mainly volcanic and includes over 7,000 islands, with the typical vegetation being tropical rain forest. With that said, it rained almost every day in the field in this biome, so rain jackets, ponchos, rain pants, umbrellas, and rubber boots were indispensable to keep ourselves a bit dry. We also visited Lake Bababu in Basilisa, Dinagat Island, which had a beautiful forest on limestone karst or ultramafic substrates. As per the focus of the NSF grant, we concentrated only on the southern part of the Philippines, that is the Visayas and Mindanao.
Our field team was composed of small focus groups: two seed plant groups, two lichen groups, two pteridophytes groups, and two bryophytes groups to ensure efficiency and best coverage of collections in each locality we visited. The activities of the lichen and seed plants teams will be emphasized here in this article. Overall, the expedition was a great international collaboration effort with a mission of collecting diverse specimens of plants and lichens, training the next-generation of biologists, connecting and communicating biodiversity science with local stakeholders, conveying the importance of conserving plant resources, and facilitating collaborations.
Left: Musa fibers from the native species Musa textilis in Mt. Nebo in Bukidnon Province. (photo by Jun Wen)
Middle: Some members of seed plants team processing collections in Mt. Balatukan, Misamis Oriental Province, in northern Mindanao. From left to right: Noel Lagunday, local participant Michael, Vanessa Handley and Darin Penneys. (photo by Jun Wen)
Right: Members of seed plants team collecting in Dinagat Island Province with showy flowers growing on ultramafic soils. Left to right: Florfe Acma, Jennifer Opiso, Tiana Rehman, Noe Mendez, and Jun Wen. (photographer unknown)
The seed plants groups included Peter Fritsch and Tiana Rehman (FWBG), Darin Penneys (WNC), Jun Wen (US), Vanessa Handley (Montgomery Botanical Center), Florfe Acma (CMU), Melanie Guiang (CMU), Noel Lagunday (CMU), Noe Mendez (CMU), Niko Briones (CMU), Samson Salba (CMU), Aldrin Hongko (CMU), Jeffrey Mancera (UP-M) and Jennifer Opiso (CMU). Over 700 collection numbers were made, each mostly with 3–8 duplicates, at least two sets of silica-gel preserved samples for DNA-based phylogenetic and phylogenomic studies, as well as photos documented for each collection. The collections included all plant taxa we encountered that had flowers, fruits, or seeds. These collections will be extremely valuable for systematic, floristic, and other biodiversity research, especially for studying the biodiversity assembly of the Philippine archipelago. Our collections also included specimens of a number of species new to science.
The lichen team started small in the very first expedition but has been growing strong! Besides Manuela Dal Forno (FWBG), the former and current Lichen Team members of this project are Alice Gerlach (FWBG), Aurfeli D. Nietes (UP-LB), Bibiana Moncada (BGBM), Ermalene C. Taer (CMU), Franchesca C. Vega (MSU), Ivy Adlaon (CMU), Jayson Pucot (DSSC), Jovi Nobleza (CMU), Qweenie P. Abaya (CMU), Rasel Lacandula (CMU), and Yvonne Love Cariño (CMU). For Expedition 4, our team was composed of five team members for the main locations (Fig. 8; Moncada, Cariño, Lacandula, Taer and Dal Forno), with three additional students participating in the local nearby day trips (Vega, Abaya, and Adlaon).
Left: Lichen Team in Mt. Balatukan with a nice Lobaria specimen. On the left, top to bottom: Manu Dal Forno, Rasel Lacandula, Ermalene Taer; on the right, top to bottom: Yvonne L. Cariño, Bibiana Moncada. (photo by Manuela Dal Forno)
Right: Graph displaying the families of the lichens collected during Expedition 4.
About 2800 lichen vouchers were collected during this expedition, with the family distribution shown in the graph above. The most representative families amongst our samples are Graphidaceae and Parmeliaceae, unsurprisingly, since these are the two most species-rich families of lichen-forming fungi. We also have a large amount of sampling from lobarioid Peltigeraceae, e.g., Sticta, Pseudocyphellaria, and Podostictina (not included in the graph). For a large portion of the collections (34.7%), we were not able to confidently assign a family in the field (indet in the graph). We look forward to working with these samples in our labs, especially the more challenging groups.
While at Mt. Balatukan, in the Scout Camp campsite where we camped, the Lichen Team enjoyed collecting from a wooden house covered in lichens. Many of these lichens belong to Usnea (Parmeliaceae) but also Lecanora (Lecanoraceae) and Arthoniaceae. All specimens were left out to dry in their collecting packets.
Left and second from left: Lichens covering a wooden house in Mt. Balatukan.
Second from right: Lichen collections (drying at room temperature) in Mt. Balatukan.
Far right: Cladonia growing on the soil of the bonsai forest.
(all photos by Manuela Dal Forno)
While on Dinagat Island, our favorite location was the Upper Montane Dwarf Forest over ultramafic soil, locally known as Bonsai Forest, in Loreto. Besides overall great flora and funga, we observed the only Cladonia population on the island as well as a high diversity of Nepenthes (pitcher plants).
At the end of the expedition, Wen was invited to deliver a lecture at CMU on collections-based integrative systematics in the age of genomics and informatics. It was warmly received by the faculty and students.
Left: Small Nepenthes in the bonsai forest (finger for scale). (photo by Manuela Dal Forno)
Right: Dr. Alexander Abella, the OIC (Officer-in-Charge) President of Central Mindanao University, and Dr. Florfe Acma, Director of the Center for Biodiversity Research and Extension in Mindanao (CEBREM) presenting a certificate and gifts to Jun Wen after her lecture at CMU on February 8, 2023. (photographer unknown)
The expedition was fruitful and successful. Beyond the important collections made, it played a very important role in training many young biologists and strengthening the academic ties and collaborations between several institutions in the USA and the Philippines. We hope the cooperation and friendships will lead to better understanding of the biodiversity and conservation of the Philippine archipelago, a major biodiversity hotspot in southeastern Asia. The current population growth, deforestation and mining have presented major threats to the vulnerable tropical forests in the Philippines. Conservation efforts which engage the local communities are eminently needed in the southern Philippines.
Wen gratefully thanks Fritsch, Dal Forno, and all the CMU hosts and colleagues for inviting her participation on this amazing journey (Fig. 15 & 16).
Left: Victor Amoroso, Tiana Rehman, Manuela Dal Forno, Peter Fritsch, Jun Wen, Darin Penneys, Bibiana Moncada, and Jeff Mancera (from left to right) visiting the Fernery at Central Mindanao University on January 15, 2023. (photo by Victor Amoroso)
Right: Seed Plant Group II collecting on Dinagat Island. From left to right: Jeffrey Mancera, Lanie Guiang, Darin Penneys, Jun Wen, Noel Lagunday, and Vanessa Handley. (photographer unknown)
For more information about this project, please visit: https://www.manueladalforno.com/lichens-of-the-southern-philippines (especially for the lichen component), and our official NSF award abstracts: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1754697&HistoricalAwards=false; and https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1754667&HistoricalAwards=false.
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