Outside the areas named after trees, birds, fish, and bats, a good number of Davao locations trace their appellations to common plants like root crops and staples, though these can also refer to common names of animals. There are also sites named after native rice varieties, sweet potatoes (kamote), taro (gabi), corn, adlay (Job’s tears, scientific name Coix lacryma-jobi), sugar cane (tubo), yam (ubi), cassava (balanghoy or kamoteng-kahoy), and bananas (wild and cultivated).
Ticulon, a barangay of Malita, Davao Occidental, is named after an upland, glutinous colored rice (tikoloon). Anibong, a village in Maco, Davao de Oro, is a rice variety though its most likely provenance belongs to a tree with the same name (Oncosperma filamentosum Blume.).
Molanbolan (origin of Manambulan, a village of Tugbok District, Davao City) is an upland, non-glutinous, white rice variety. Bungbong (provenance of Bongbong, Pantukan, Davao de Oro) and babag (a barangay of Monkayo, Davao de Oro) are upland rice varieties of the glutinous kind.
Dumagat (also a tribal name), kagayan (as in Cagayan de Oro) and kalauag (Calauag, a town in Quezon Province) are rice and corn varieties while komagingking (likely origin of Kingking, Pantukan, Davao de Oro) and buaya (also a common name of a crocodile) are rice varieties.
Dauis (Dawis), a village in Digos City is named after Dauis, Bohol, which is turn was named after a sweet potato variety with the same name. The same etymology goes to Misamis (name of two provinces) which comes from another camote species with similar distinctiveness. And one must not forget that Mintal (a district of Davao City) is also another kind of sweet potato.
How about bananas? Well, names like Bonguyan (surname for former Davao City vice mayor and councilor), Calibo (a town in Aklan Province), Daliao (a district of Davao City), and Candaba (a town in the province of Pampanga) are banana and plantain varieties found in the archipelago.
Meanwhile, binuaya (provenance of the placename Cabuaya, a village of Mati City) and Malinao (a village of Laak, Davao de Oro) are actually ubi (yam) varieties. Mt. Busao (in Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental) and Mambusao (a mountain in Compostela, Davao de Oro) could have provenance from busao, a gabi variety that grows in upland, moist areas. Papañga (possibly the origin of Pampanga, a village of Davao City) refers to another taro species.
Kaputian (former town of the Island Garden City of Samal) likely comes from potian (a rattan species) or putian (a kind of banana). Poliquit, a familiar surname, is a morphology of poriquit or porikit, another banana variety. Still speaking of bananas, the most common among Visayans are cardaba, tundan, tindok, moko, sab-a, morado, binangay, and agutay.
Elsewhere, there are also numerous Davao places named after fish, birds, and trees.
Binuang (a barangay of Maco, Davao de Oro) and Cabinuangan (earliest name of New Bataan, Davao de Oro) trace their names to binuang (Octomeles sumatrana), while cuambog (indigenous name of Mabini, Davao de Oro) is from a tree (Dillenia philippinensis).
Hagonoy (a town of Davao del Sur; a common weed, Chromolaena odorata), piapi (a district of Davao City; a tropical mangrove, Avicennia rumphiana), agdao (a Tagakaulo tree, Premna odorata Blanco), and padada (a town in Davao del Sur; Sonneratia alba J. Smith) are generally plant names.
If labeled after the birds, places like Callawa, a barangay of Davao City (from Manobo kilyawa, black-naped oriole known as Oriolus chinensis) Bacaca, another city area (indigenous name of kingfisher or Halcyon leucocephala) come to mind.
On the other hand, Darong (a barangay of Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur) and Indangan (a barangay of Tibungko Dsitrict, Davao City) are named after the yellow tang, a saltwater fish also known as labahita and scientifically classified as Zebrasoma flavescens.
