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Palawan Sun Skink

    Leaves, twigs, and barks that have fallen to the ground make up leaf litter, and it's home to a wide variety of plants and animals. Most of the tiny animals found in the leaf litter are invertebrates. They are important food source for toads, skinks, and other small amphibians and reptiles that rely on the shelter and moisture provided by the leaf litter. One of the many creatures living in the leaf litter habitats of Palawan is the Palawan Sun Skink ( Eutropis sahulinghangganan ), a newly described species of skink endemic to Palawan. The name Eutropis sahulinghangganan derives from the Tagalog "sa huling" or "sa huli ng" (meaning in the last), and "hangganan" (meaning frontier). Palawan Sun Skink     The Palawan Sun Skink inhabits thick coastal forests, mangroves, as well as secondary forests and primary forests up in the mountains. I have seen this skink near the peak of Mount Beaufort at elevations of around 1000 masl, but the population of thi...

Nepenthes philippinensis

Nepenthes philippinensis photo by Jojo De Peralta
     A Pitcher plant is a carnivorous plant which have a modified prey-trapping leaves that features a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. There are several endemic tropical pitcher plants growing in Palawan, the most common is the Nepenthes philippinensis.

Nepenthes philippinensis photo by Jojo De Peralta 
     This species has long, scrambling vines and are often climbers, accessing the canopy of their habitats using tendrils that stretches out and twines around any suitable support. It produces more pitchers and flowers on a single plant compared to all known species of nepenthes in Palawan. There are several color variants, but the lower pitchers are usually reddish and the upper pitchers or traps are green or yellowish.

Nepenthes philippinensis photo by Jojo De Peralta 
     This lowland species is widespread in Palawan and can be found thriving in soils with low nutrient availability and high concentrations of heavy metals like nickel and chromium. Like all carnivorous plants, this pitcher plant can grow in locations where the soil is too poor in minerals and/or too acidic for most plants to be able to grow. It colonizes open areas in abandoned mining sites, river edges, old landslides and clearings in ultramafic forests.

Nepenthes philippinensis photo by Jojo De Peralta 
     Its preys are mostly flying or crawling insects that fall and drown inside its pitcher. These insects gradually dissolve and the plant absorbs the nutrients from the decomposing body. Most plants normally obtain the necessary nutrients through their roots, but since this plant grows in ultramafic sites, the soil alone does not provide enough minerals to keep the plants healthy. Its unique ability to obtain food through its pitchers helps in acquiring essential nutrients for survival.
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