For those interested in Botany, Davao’s place in scientific history, though small, will always be linked to the discovery of the country’s second Rafflesia (named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore), a giant parasite and recognized as the world’s largest bloom.
Credit for finding the rare plant goes to naturalist Alexander Schadenberg, a native of Breslau, Germany, who spent most of his life exploring and documenting the islands for flora and fauna. For the feat, he deserves to be called as the ‘father of Davao rafflesia.’ Born on June 27, 1851, he was born a decade earlier than his personal friend, national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal.
The discovery of Rafflesia schadenbergiana Goeppert (named in his honor) at Mount Apo in 1882 is a story in itself. Already a Doctor of Philosophy at age 23, Schadenberg resigned in 1876from his work as assistant director of the Potassic Salt Works at Stassfurt, Germany, and accepted the offer as chemist of Botica Boie, a famous wholesale drug company in Manila.
For three years Schadenberg worked with the pharmacy while working on his interest to explore the interior regions of the archipelago. But in 1879, due to a malarial attack, he was forced to return home but not after discussing a plan with Otto Koch, a Cebu-based German, about discovering southern Mindanao, especially the regions around Mt. Apo.
The pursuit was again stalled in 1881 when Schadenberg was engaged to a young maiden back home but was able to convince his future spouse to a temporary separation in favor of his quest to collect ethnographic, botanical, and zoological samples from Davao region. Finally, by December 1881, with Koch in tow, Schadenberg established himself at the foothills of Mt. Apo with the help of the Bagobos, the iconic tribesmen of Davao, as host and guide.
Schadenberg and company actually undertook two ascents to the mountain. These occurred on Feb. 20, 1882, and March 16, 1882. It was during the second expedition that the new Rafflesia species, measuring 80 centimeters in diameter, was found at Parag, a mountain north of the volcano. Prior to his second ascent, he wrote a letter to his wife dated March 9, 1882 and postmarked ‘Sibulan,’ a village in Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur.
Excited at the scientific developments he had made in the country, Schadenberg eventually decided to bring to the Philippines his family in November 1885 and permanently settled in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, where he established his base in exploring the northern cordilleras. For a brief period in 1890, his entire family visited his motherland; he returned the following year to become part owner of the pharmacy Boie and Siegert, renamed later as Boie and Schanderberg.
Since the finding of Rafflesia in Davao region, close to a dozen other species were uncovered in various regions, including the Rafflesia mira, found at New Albay, Maragusan, Compostela Valley Province, and the Rafflesia banahawensis (Mt. Banahaw), later reverted to its original classification as Rafflesia philippensis Blanco, the first giant to be discovered in the country in 1845.
In the past 130 years, the list of Philippine rafflesias now includes R. lagascae (R. manillana), Rafflesia speciosa (Antique), R. lobata (2005, Mt. Igtuog and Mt. Sakpaw, Panay), R. baletei (1991, Mt. Isarog and Mt. Iriga Range, Camarines Sur), R. panchoana (2007, Mt. Makiling), R. leonardi (2008, Kinapawan, Lal-lo, Cagayan Valley), R. aurantis (2009, Quirino Province), and R. consueloae, the world’s smallest giant flower.
In general, Rafflesia, the Wikipedia explains, is “a genus of parasitic flowering plants. It contains approximately 28 species (including four incompletely characterized species as recognized by Willem Meijer in 1997), all found in southeastern Asia, in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. It was first discovered by Louis Deschamps in Java between 1791 and 1794, but his notes and illustrations, seized by the British in 1803, were not available to western science until 1861. It was later found in the Indonesian rain forest in Bengkulu, Sumatra by an Indonesian guide working for Dr. Joseph Arnold [an English naturalist] in 1818, and named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the leader of the expedition.
“The plant has no stems, leaves or true roots. It is a holoparasite of vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae), spreading its absorptive organ, the haustorium, inside the tissue of the vine. The only part of the plant that can be seen outside the host vine is the five-petalled flower. In some species, such as Rafflesia arnoldii, the flower may be over 100 centimetres (39 in) in diameter, and weigh up to 10 kilograms (22 lb). Even one of the smallest species, R. baletei, has 12 cm diameter flowers.
“The flowers look and smell like rotting flesh, hence its local names which translate to ‘corpse flower’ or ‘meat flower.’ The foul odor attracts insects such as flies, which transport pollen from male to female flowers. Most species have separate male and female flowers, but a few have hermaphroditic flowers. Little is known about seed dispersal. However, tree shrews and other forest mammals eat the fruits and disperse the seeds. Rafflesia is the official state flower of Indonesia known as Puspa langka (rare flower) or Padma Raksasa (giant flower), the Sabah state in Malaysia, and of the Surat Thani Province, Thailand.”
