Mt. Hamiguitan New Plant Discoveries

The 5th day of #MuseumWeek bears the theme “culture, society, and innovation” and today’s topic #environmentMW focus on the new plant discoveries in Mt. Hamiguitan. This mountain is still full of surprises as new species are discovered each year. 

Mt. Hamiguitan Wildlife Sanctuary was designated as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1403/) in 2014 because it represents a complete, substantially intact, and highly diverse mountain ecosystem, in a significant biogeographic region of the Philippines. As a result of its isolation and its vegetation in ultramafic soil and climate conditions, its biodiversity has a high level of endemicity that has led to the discovery of unique species found nowhere else. The unique “bonsai” forest is the largest known tract of its kind in the Philippines that embodies nature’s adaptability to survive in adverse conditions.

Mt. Hamiguitan is home to five Nepenthes or pitcher plants found else in the world. Nepenthes peltata was described in 2008, followed by Nepenthes micramphora in 2009, Nepenthes hamiguitanensis in 2010, Nepenthes justinae in 2016, and the newest species described was Nepenthes alfredoi in 2018. 

Other taxa discovered in the area were ferns such as Lindasaea hamiguitanensis in 2012 and two grass fern Actinostachys minuta in 2020 and Actinostachys simplex in 2021. Actinostachys minuta is known as the smallest grass fern with a unique habit of growing along the trunk of the tree ferns (Alsophila sp.). 

Rubiaceae (Coffee family) one of the largest family in the Philippines has several new species described from Mt. Hamiguitan. Ophiorrhiza erythropilosa and Ophiorrhiza hamiguitanensis both deascribed in 2020 and Hedyotis hamiguitanensis in 2021. In the mistletoe family (Loranthaceae), a new genus record for the country and new species Amylotheca cleofei was described in 2021.

The list of both flora and fauna of Mt. Hamiguitan is far from complete. As researchers visit new sites not previously surveyed, many more species are discovered and described. Let us protect our remaining primary forests as they harbor many unknown species waiting to be discovered. 

#MuseumWeek2022
#environmentMW
#NationalMuseumPh

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines