Food Crisis Series16: Where have all our native fruits gone?

Food Crisis Series16:  

Where have all our native fruits gone?

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

                             Black sapote (Diospyrus nigra), Family Ebenaceae

Where have all the black sapote gone,

local persimmon children eat with fun?

Where have all the native guava gone,

the bats and birds and the young one?

Where have all the sweet nangka gone,

its fruits buried under the ground?

Where have all the old piña gone,

on the upland, sweetened by the sun?

Where have all the red papaya gone,

solo by name, the only of a kind?

Where have all the pomegranate gone,

friendly though like the deadly one?

Where have all the pako mango gone,

to cook the finest sinigang?

Where have all the big pomelo gone,

its rind made into jelly and jam?

Where have all the red macopa gone,

the laughing children in its arm?

Gone to the genie everyone,

technology’s child becoming man. ~

 

Siniguelas (Spondias purpurea) Family Anacardiaceae; 

macopa (Eugenia jambolana) Family Myrtaceae

    

                                   Native guava (Psidium guajava), Family Myrtaceae; 

                                   sampalok (Tamarindus indica), Family Leguminosae

 

Pomegranate (Punica granatum), family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae; 

camachile (Pithecollobium dulce) Family Leguminusae.

 

Mabolo (Diospyurus blancoi), Family Ebenaceae ~