By ANNIE C. VILLASIN-YOUNG
Looking for new inspiration in your art, craft, or vocation?
Every now and then, we need fresh ideas to rediscover our creative spark, challenge our inventiveness, reinvigorate our passion and vision for activities we truly love, or even enlarge our world within and likewise through cooperation with like-minded individuals towards a worthwhile goal.
Let the plethora of Philippine flora — native, indigenous, and endemic plant heritage of more than 9,000 species of trees, shrubs, flowers, and herbs (which offer infinite possibilities going beyond common perceptions and misconceptions) — lead us to our next adventure…
Just like the way an urban forest park, the UP Arboretum, inspired 33-year-old photographer Jan Mayo to come up with a diptych collection highlighting the beautiful structures and parts of 16 native plants (including Malakatmon and Bagawak-Morado, classified as vulnerable species).
The photography project titled “Faces and Flora” (done in collaboration with botanists and makeup artists), which combines Mayo’s advocacy of indigenous plant preservation and his passion for creating fashion portraits, won him the Fujifilm Regional Grant in 2022. His final work became part of the Fujifilm exhibit in Tokyo and eventually found its way to the National Museum of the Philippines, where it is currently featured at the Museum of Natural History gallery, side by side with several framed herbarium collection specimens.
Mayo’s breathtaking images, with attention to details, evoke a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity in viewers on the charm and vitality of plant species, and somehow also soften the dichotomy between science and art with his interpretation of beauty and transformation.
Jhaydee Ann Pascual, museum curator under the Botany and National Herbarium division, said the photo exhibit complements projects of the National Museum to drum up public interest, awareness, and appreciation for the propagation, protection, and conservation of native plants nationwide.
The degradation of rural and urban ecosystems affects the fight to preserve the country’s botanical heritage, said Jorell Legaspi, museum deputy director-general, and stressed the importance of intensified efforts, continuous research, collective commitment, and inspired individual actions.
Mayo, Pascual, and Legaspi were joined by other advocates and stakeholders in the event “Rewilding: Restoring Connections through Philippine Native Plants” last May 22, spearheaded by the National Museum in line with Heritage Month.
Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan talked about the potency of ethnomedicinal plants and called on different sectors of society and government agencies to support the herbal medicine industry.
In line with urban greenscaping, Architect Patrick Gozon mentioned the advantages of choosing native trees, citing the sturdy and resilient Molave and Narra (the country’s national tree, soon to be featured in a commemorative stamp), among others. He also encouraged reading botanical books and joining organizations for tree-planting activities in gardens or within communities (Arbor Day in mind).
Sufficient knowledge on native plant species and laws protecting them is crucial in successful conservation. As Leonard Co, Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society founder, said: “You cannot effectively protect what you do not care for and you cannot care for what you do not know or understand.”
