Mt. Kanlaon, Its Myths and Wildlife, Painting by Masaste

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(Note: This Management Plan was approved prior to the passage of RA 9154, declaring Mt. Kanlaon a Natural Park and authorizing PNOC-EDC to enter into 169 hectares of a so called "buffer zone" for the purpose for geothermal exploration and development. In this 2001 Management Plan, there is no room for PNOC-EDC's geothermal development. The plan is included in full in this website because it is closer to an ideal of how the plan should be. )

Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park

Management Plan: June 2001(Con't)

3.4       Biological Features (Con't)

2.         Flora

MKNP is host to about 197 identified species of flora, with 145 found in the lowland areas, 114 species in the montane forest and 29 species at higher elevation of mossy forests. Although more species are listed in the lowland areas, the montane forest has the highest plant diversity at 16.28% species per plot compared to 13.18% and 9.6% species per plot at the lowland and mossy forest, respectively. In terms of tree species, however, the lowland area has the highest number of species at 6.272% per plot. This indicates a change in the composition of plant species between habitat types.

The high elevation forest is dominated by gymnosperms, pandans, small to medium trees and shrubs, herbaceous species, orchids, vines and other epiphytes, ferns and mosses. Meanwhile, trees that dominate the lowland landscape are White Nato, Baguilomboi, Hungot-hungotan, Almaciga, Pagsahingin, Kaldemon, Dao, Dungon and Takip-asim. Species found in the cultivated areas are arabica coffee, several kinds of vegetables and Mahogany species. Trees found in the montane forests are Hublas, Lokinai, Igem, Pagatpat, baguilomboi, Malignis, Tungaw-gubat, Akle, Anabiong, Anino and Banagan, among others.

Floral endemism or level of restricted species present is relatively high in MKNP. These species are found in the three (3) habitats of the park with 80 endemic species found in the lowland areas, 55 endemic species found in the Montane forest and 15 endemic species located in the Mossy forest. However, most of these are already in high level of threats as illustrated in Tables 1 and 2. Bagtikan and Kalantas are endangered endemic species that are relatively scarce in both lowland and montane forests. Other lowland endangered species are Apanag, Balokanag, Banai-banai, Bangkal, Boslayon, Biataog and Hagakhak. Some of the tree species are endemic to Negros Island only such as Hamindang, Ligan/Anagas, Lipang Kalabaw, Makaasim and Nitong Puti. MKNP has also endemic species distributed in the montane habitat only. These include: Akle, Governor’s plum, Lanatan, Palomaria and Patangis, Elmer’s Abiki, Kagay (a vine). In mossy forest those that are endemic are: Bayag-usa, Btonsillo, Kamantigi, Pakan and Tagpo. In highest elevation situated near the crater are the Negros endemic grasses, which are limited to Mt. Kanlaon only - the Isachne vulcanica and Miscathus depauperatus. Likewise, the montane forest has the highest number of threatended tree/timber species such as Almaciga, Sambulawan and Toog.

Several uses of plants shown in Table 2 were reported by the local residents and determined from secondary information. Lowland areas have 94 species of plants that are used for various purposes, montane have 65 species while mossy has 18 species. Resource use are classified into lumber and other timber materials, food resource of wildlife, furniture making, fuel wood and charcoal production and other uses such as medicine, gardening and cottage industry, food processing and cooking, food by local people, fish poisoning, source of resin, source of water and as indicator of the presence of water (algosi and Tibig). The lowland habitat contains the greatest resource base for both people and wildlife. Most of these plants are endemic to the Philippines and are getting scarce.

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