by
Benilda Z. Narcelles,PhD | Erlina P. De Peralta,MASET | Cheryl A. Langit,MAT | Dahlia D. Soriano,PhD
ABSTRACT
In the turn of the 20th century, the American city planner Daniel Burnham carved on a valley in the upland Cordillera region of Northern Luzon a summer recreational center, the city of Baguio. Baguio City is known not only for its cool climate but also for the beautiful flowers found in the city. Inflorescence is the arrangement of flowers in the stem; it is also referred to as clusters of flowers in a stem (Stern, 2006). The term inflorescence in this research refers to the flowering plants present in the various parks of Baguio. Parks can also be an avenue in introducing this concern through maintaining a high degree of biodiversity of plants that can be seen in these areas. The concept of Biodiversity is what the researchers introduced in this study. Through this research, the City Environment and Parks Management office will be provided with a floral pant inventory of the different parks in the city. Such data may be used to plan the improvement of the parks in terms of how biodiversity can be introduced in the city planning for the purpose of sustainability and development. Such research can also be an avenue for identifying plants that can help in the preservation and improvement of air quality in the city. It was the purpose of the study to identify the flowering plants found in the different parks in Baguio City and to prepare a catalogue of these plants. The parks that were included were Burnham Park, which was divided into sub-parks namely: Skating Rink, Rose Garden, Melvin Jones and Lake Drive; Botanical Garden, Panagbenga Park, Wright Park, and Sunshine Park. There were 95 species of flowering plants identified in the different parks in Baguio City. Scarlet sage (Salvia splendensF.) was the most common since it was identified in all the areas. The study shows that Baguio contains a lot of floral diversity. Baguio has always been popular with beautiful flowers and the research shows that there is a continued effort of the City Government in preserving floral species in the Cordillera.
Source: UB Research Journal, Vol. XXXIV, No. 2, July – December 2010
