Another reason to save the forests:  Pitcher plants

 The Philippines is blessed with natural resources.  Recently, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said it can now lay claim to be the center of pitcher plant diversity.  

 

Nepenthes justinae

It now has a total of 53 documented or recorded pitcher plants, also called Nepenthes, citing a study conducted by a botanist.

Other competitors to the title with the most number of pitcher plants recorded or documented only have, at most, 30 different species.  

 We have almost twice the number considering that the Philippines have yet to explore most of its remaining virgin forests.

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants.  This particular species of plant have leaves that form like a pitcher which is half filled with natural chemical which it uses to digest or absorb the nutrient of whatever it catches in its traps.    

Their existence, according to the official, is important in maintaining a balance in our forest ecosystem.  These pitcher plants can control the population of insects, frogs or even small reptiles like lizards.

There are site-endemic pitcher plants in various parts of the country.  They are somewhere in the wild – the natural forests have never been destroyed by logging or mining.

This, the official said, should be enough reason to conduct research before concerned agencies conduct logging or mining activities – to know what the country stands to lose – in conducting these destructive activities.

The only way to save those pitcher plants, which are, by the way, endangered or in the brink of extinction, is to save our remaining forests.