Photos of the Plateau

Tagbak grows naturally in the forests of Kulaman, but this one is planted

inside the campus of Langgal National High School

I have pretensions that this blog is different from those garbage dumps out there that feature tourist spots through repetitive photos and write-ups that skim only the surface and peppered with grammatical errors. Now it looks like I have to jump into the bandwagon. Being back here in Kulaman Plateau, I’ve been taking so many photos of nature that they’re starting to clog up my computer memory. To decongest my drives, I’m posting some of the photos in this blog.

No, I’m not turning this site into a photo blog. My photos are obviously taken by an amateur, mostly in Auto mode of my lowly yet handy Canon PowerShot A2500. (Its shots are blurry in artificial light, but for landscapes and objects in natural light, I’m satisfied with the camera’s performance.) My photo posts won’t replace my regular Monday posts; the photo posts will appear in the next few months every Friday, starting today. I’ll still try to come up with text to go along with the photos, but the text will be noticeably shorter than in my regular posts, and count my captions to have ample (even extra) information.

For this photo post, I’m featuring the plant that is locally known as tagbak. I personally find the plant enchanting even when I was still a kid. It’s the fierce, not frail, kind of beautiful. It does not ask to be tended to in a dainty pot. As a flower of the jungle, it firmly buries its roots into the ground and, with green rodlike stalks, props its large leaves and heart-shaped flowers, forming a natural throne for itself, a queen demanding to be worshipped.

I must admit that the photos in this post have been enhanced using the freeware PhotoScape. The tagbak flower in my photos is paler than it appears in person, and I had time in my hands, so I tinkered with the images. Rest assured, though, that unless stated otherwise, the photos of this blog are not digitally altered. As much as possible, I want you to see Kulaman Plateau as what it really is.

I won’t slow down your computer by dumping here all the photos I could. For every photo post, I will upload five photos only at most. Also, I’ll make sure that each photo is unique, not a photo of the same subject taken at a different angle. Wait. That’s a tall order. Let me change that: If I have to feature the same subject, I’ll use up to two photos only. Lastly, though my posts for this blog are usually written in a hurry, I’ll try to check and recheck my grammar always. Visit this site next week for the second Photo Friday.

At the tip, a stalk may have a cluster of fruit instead of a flower.

The fruit is filled with sour white seeds inside.

Tall stalks of leaves normally cradle the flowers of a tagbak plant.