Queer Looking Trees from Another World

Photos and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

 Bearded Eucalyptus Tree, Angels' Hill, Tagaytay City. Clinging moss 

is actually lichens of the fruiticose or hanging type.

I love trees friendly or queer,

they whistle with the breeze;

they sigh in summer air, 

and make me feel at ease.

I love trees real or fancy,

tall, small, and spreading;

lining the shore, or foothill,

atop a mountain like king.

I love trees in all seasons,

even with their grotesque crown;

buds in spring fullest in summer;

and in autumn red and brown. 

I love trees, their make-believe faces,

dare to imagine in the evening, 

the legendary white lady;

or beauteous Maria Makiling.  

I love trees they are like people,

senses, language of their own

are universal to all creatures,

even before man was born.  

I love trees because I see myself

in them today as it was before;

and if i think trees are really queer,

I think I should love them more. ~

Balete (Ficus benjamina) strangles own host (acacia - 
Samanea saman), hence called Strangler's Fig, UST Manila

Ghost singers under a huge banyan tree, Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC 
(Photo taken after a wedding reception, unedited photo.) 

Ichabod Crane Tree, SPUQC (Fiction character in a 
short story  of the same title by Washington Irving)

Who is knocking on my window sill? (kalachuchi - 
Plumera acuminata), Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC

Tree casts its own shadow of death before its early 
demise following Ondoy flood in 2010 , UST Manila

Python Tree, an overhanging limb of acacia covered
 with epiphytes, Ateneo de Manila University, QC

Haunting Fig Tree (Gmelina), Church of the Ascension Parish Church, 
Lagro QC. Its broad prop roots produce a dull gong sound when struck.  

Leaning Pisa tree (Fire tree - Delonix regia) leans 45 degrees 
over busy Regalado Avenue, QC. NOTE: the tree was cut down 
to clear power lines, and eliminate possible accident. 
 

Elephant Tree, Kaohsiung, Taiwan