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Facts and Figures

A comprehensive inventory covering all the trees and other free-standing woody plants was conducted from 12 January 2008 to 16 April 2008 at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center (NAPWC) in Quezon City, a 22.4 hectares of public recreation area maintained under the management of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

All the stems with a diameter of =2.5 cm DBH were tagged, measured, and identified to its corresponding species. Because of the impracticality of establishing a grid system and marking this with corresponding stakes on the ground, it was decided that a system of areas and sub-areas (11 major areas further divided into 44 sub-areas) was be used to serve as a guide in locating all the trees for future monitoring purposes. For the most part, the main guide areas follow the system used by the Park Superintendent (PASU) Office in tracking down personnel movement within the Park's premises. Very large administrative sectors are further subdivided into finer areas, using existing trail network and other permanent landmarks to define them.

All stems recorded are correspondingly numbered (with an aluminum tag) within the afore-mentioned Areas and sub-areas. Hence, a tree tag bearing the serial 0103D-203-02 indicated that this belongs to tree # 203 within Area 01, Sub-area 03D. The last digit -02 means that the tag belongs to stem #2 of a multi-stemmed tree.

The initial results of the PNPCSI study showed that the stand composition within NAPWC included 4,505 individual trees and 6,901 stems. These trees and stems belong to a total of 135 species in 83 genera and 38 families that have been identified. Of the 135 species, 58 are indigenous, with only seven (7) are Philippine endemics, Among the endemic species are:

Katmon – Dillenia philippinensis

Kamatog – Sympetalandra densiflora

Niyog-niyogan – Ficus pseudopalma

With regard to diameter of trees, the biggest recorded diameter is 165.6 cm for an earpod tree (0102D-112-0, Enterolobium cyclocarpum (Leguminosae) and fire tree (Delonix regia). Of the native species, a narra, Pterocarpus indicus , 08031-86 (Leguminosae) has obtained a maximum diameter of 92.1 centimeters.

Abundance of trees ands stems within NAPWC area

In terms of abundance or number of trees and stems encountered during the inventory activities, the most abundant tree species in NAPWC is the big-leafed mahogany ( Swietenia macrophylla ) with 1,099 stems recorded, followed by McArthurs Palm ( Ptychosperma macarthurii ) with 853 stems and Indian rubber tree ( Ficus elastica ) with 563 stems