Enigmatic Himbabao or Alukon - Exotic Vegetable (SV2World Series)

San Vicente Ilocos Sur to the World Series Part 2 

Enigmatic Himbabao or Alukon - Exotic Vegetable 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Deciduous Himbaba-o or Alukon (Ilk), on-the-spot pastel drawing by the author. The tree is referred scientifically as Broussonetia luzonica (Blanco) (accepted name) Family Moraceae. It's referred to as Birch Flower.

What comes to mind painting or drawing a culinary subject, such as the alukon standing in a thicket on a hillside away from town? Imagine being a Survivor searching for any available food in the wild. Or Henry David Thoreau living alone by the Walden Pond. (And writing a treatise of man and society of this title.)

For me as an Ilocano, I've known this tree since childhood. We kids, in my time, would gather its worm-like flowers with bamboo pole when it was impossible to climb the tree - which is dangerous, not only because it is tall, but its wood is weak and fragile. Seldom is the tree logged for furniture or construction. On reaching home, our harvest goes to the shimmering pot to the delight of our folks. What a sumptuous lunch

It's a delicacy of the Ilocanos - alukon
to the Tagalogs in Quezon - himbaba-o
It comes in other names in other places;
its flowers cooked into diningding or stew,
with kamote to thicken its soup - buridibud,
and topped with broiled tilapia or hito.

Picking alukon flowers from a juvenile tree (Alokon is propagated by cuttings);

closeup of harvest of flowers and tops. Alukon flowers are kept fresh in banana 

stalk for transport.

What do we know about this plant? Botanists have yet to agree the real species that yield the edible staminate (male) flowers, from those that bear "fruit" which is not edible. Some claim the former to be the male, while the latter is the female.

We have a big alukon in our garden which has been providing us regularly with the edible flowers. Now and then we prune it to make harvesting convenient, and have cuttings for planting. This is how a particular productive tree is propagated "true to type."

Flowers (per 100 g) yields water (86.8 g), energy (52 kcal), protein (2.9 g), fat (0.9 g), carbohydrate (8.1 g), fiber (1.5 g), ash (1.3 g), Ca (278 mg), phosphorus (75 mg), iron (4.3 mg), carotene (300 µg), vitamin A (50 µg), and thiamin (0.06 mg).

Note: While reportedly rare in the Northern Luzon, Himbabao is common in the Quezon area. Local describe two species by flowering and fruiting characteristics: Himbabao, with its long slender, spike-like flowers) and Himbabaong-lalaki, with its gray, puckered and wrinkled fruit. There is disagreement on whether it is a flower or fruit. There is also differing opinions on blogs: some referring to the fruit-bearing tree as male alukon and the spike flowering variety to alukon, and vice-versa. Or, perhaps, they are separate species

                  

         Deciduous Himbaba-o or Alukon (Ilk), on-the-spot pastel drawing by the author. 

Acknowledgement: Godofredo U. Stuart Jr., M.D., Philippine Medicinal Plant, Internet ~