Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
The girls have picked them every one..
Except that for this flower, nobody wanted to pick it because of it's stinky rotten smell.
We used to destroy this flower when we were kids as it's pungent smell that is likened to a rotten flesh bothered us. Patay na daga smells even better. I can still vividly remember my lolo cutting the stems for his alagang baboy.
A couple of decades after those happy and silly summers, I found out that this smelly and neglected flower, which we call Ballangotan by the way, is getting extinct and considered rare. It is now being prized by city dwellers and biologists alike. And the variety that we have in Abra, particularly in Pabaca might be the smallest of them all.
I read somewhere that in the United States, they cultivate these and they are famous as selfie background and subject. Well you are remembered on how you smell so it's not surprising that they called it "corpse flower." At least it sounds better in English than in Tagalog, "bangkay na bulaklak".
So next time I'll see a Ballangotan in my place in Abra, I will try to appreciate it as I may never see one again. And of course, I am already researching on how we can preserve it.
As they say, basta mabaho, mahalaga. Ay mali, hindi porke mabaho, walang halaga 🤭
Plantitas, plantitos, would you dare to bring this home?
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