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The
Vanda Sanderiana Orchid

Davao's very own Waling Waling.
(picture taken from The Orchid Photo Page)

I was enthralled to see some amazing similarities between my story ("Waling") and the story of its discovery by whites. There's an obvious similarity between the discovery of Mr. Roebelin's and Kugihana's, in which both were preceded by natural disturbances (Roebelin recalled an earthquake, Kugihana braved a big storm). There is also the element of "slumber" preceding both discoveries--and both disturbances (Roebelin awoke from sleep after an earthquake then he saw the flowers through a hole in the treehouse's roof, Kugihana awoke from sleep after a raindrop fell on her eyes after which she began her search, braving a great storm). Likewise, Roebelin's recounting of a huge tree on which his treehouse nestled smoothly blends with my story's emergent (i.e., a tree that "emerges" from the roof of the forest canopy due to it's great height) on which Waling perched. Both discoveries also occured at dawn. Though these may not be much, they were enough to give me a rush of some unknown hormones!

The following was taken verbatim from Tales of Orchid Hunting.

Vanda Sanderiana

In 1882 one of Mr. Sanders explorers by the name of Roebelin was despatched to the Philippines to search for new species, one day, as a guest of a "savage" chieftain south east of Mindanao, he found himself accomodated in a tree house which was perched high in the canopy  of one particularly large tree, so as to be "well out the way of animals".

Early in the morning whilst it was still dark he awoke to a deep throated roaring sound and found the tree swaying wildly, it became apparent that an earthquake had shaken the forest, and in particular his abode, throwing all his companions to the ground, destroying his makeshift ladder, and leaving him isolated in the ruins of the tree house.

When dawn broke, he lay back, gazing forlornly through a hole  in the remnants of his roof, and he noticed some very large flowers of a lilac and cinnamon colouring growing in the very tree he had chosen as a campsite, climbing up he identified the orchid as a new species and named it Vanda Sanderiana.

Kewl, eh? Email me if you have any comments, suggestions, complaints, etc.