Leonardo Co, Foremost Filipino Botanist
Leticia Du
May I share the following accounts of the life of Leonard Co, a field scientist
like myself.
Jurgenne Primavera
just sharing with you this article from jessica zafra's blog
FYI:
http://www.jessicarulestheuniverse.com/2010/11/23/a-very-bad-week-for...
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A very bad week for Philippine science
November 23, 2010 By: jessicazafra Category: Current Events, Science
Leonardo Co was the country’s
premiere field botanist, a real Indiana Jones of
the plant world.
He inspired and trained legions of Filipino scientists at the University of the
Philippines, and is regarded worldwide as the expert on Philippine flora. His
students, now PhDs and teachers at universities across the globe, returned to
the Philippines every year to join him on his collecting expeditions. Leonardo
Co was beloved by his students and colleagues, who did not complain even when
they had to carry heavier bags on their treks because he insisted on cooking
good, hearty meals for them in the middle of the jungle. (He would have their
menus all planned out.)
Leonardo Co was on an expedition in Leyte when he was gunned down last week. The
official explanation is that he was caught in a firefight between soldiers and
NPA rebels, but a witness heard him begging for his life.
The following day the country’s other premiere botanist, Dan Lagunzad, died of
liver cancer.
It was a very bad week for Philippine science. For science, period.
* * * * *
Jeanmaire Molina, now at New York University, was one of Leonardo Co’s research
assistants when he first set up the biodiversity project in Palanan, Isabela, in
2001. She and several other UP biology grads who trained under him and saw his
work up close in the forests have been coming back each year during breaks in
post-graduate work abroad to follow up on their projects. Here is her eulogy for
the eminent botanist, whose death by what the military called a “crossfire” in
Leyte last week has sparked outrage here and abroad. It was published today in
the Business Mirror.
Leonard, the ‘plant philanderer,’ lies among the national treasures he loved
By Jeanmaire E. Molina, Ph.D.
“I FIRST met Sir Leonard almost 10 years ago through Chico, who was my plant
taxonomy instructor. Sir Leonard, who was then botanist for Conservation
International-Philippines, was recruiting volunteers to help with field work out
in the remote jungles of Palanan, Isabela, which entailed a 10-hour bus ride
from Manila to Cauayan, and then a 30-minute Cessna ride over the Northern
Sierra Madres. My mom was worried about the trip so we decided to ask him what
it was really like being out there, especially the malaria situation. Sir
Leonard replied matter-of-factly, “Ah, wag po kyo mag-alala. Lahat naman po ng
field biologists may malaria [Don’t worry, all field biologists have malaria].”
Hearing this, we immediately drove to Mercury Drug so that I can start my dose
of Aralen, a malaria prophylactic.
“This was Sir
Leonard. So dedicated was he, that malaria did not deter him. He
took pride in having two strains of it in his system. Nothing stopped him–a
throng of wasps, a turbulent ride on the 6-seater Cessna aka the flying coffin,
signal no. 5 typhoons, even a shotgun to his face by an NPA rebel. Just to give
you a sense of how intense this person was: One time he slipped while wading in
the Palanan stream, hit his back so bad, but instead of squealing in pain, he
shouted, “Yung Eugenia ko. May flowers yon!”, to alert us to save his collected
plant from drifting away with the stream currents. When he had it back in his
hand, only then he did he shout, “aray!”
“As a young boy, Sir Leonard already knew what he wanted to do with his life. A
natural historian at heart, he was collecting anything he could, from stones,
bugs to plants. At 12 he had transformed part of his room into a
makeshift
herbarium to house one of his first plant collections, Oryza sativa, better
known to nonbotanists as rice. He was always fascinated by the diversity of
life, and he knew plants were the scaffold that held it all together. He studied
botany in college because he knew this was the only way he could get out into
the woods, even joining the UP mountaineering club just so he could collect and
add to his growing collection of dried plants. The mentorship of Benito Tan and
Jose Vera Santos, two botany greats, only whetted his appetite even more—15,000
Philippine plant species and his dream was to know and catalogue every single
one of it, and to make the world know of the Philippines’ incredible
biodiversity before it was too late.
“Sir Leonard’s energy and incredible, beyond-words type of love for botany and
Philippine conservation were so strong that it just
radiated out to anyone he
met; and I can definitely speak for this, as well as my good friends, Sandra
Yap, Hazel Consunji, Lorie Tongco, Ulysses Ferreras, and the dozens of other
students he had touched one way or another. He was like a second father to us.
He was “Tatay Chex” for Chekwa, our fond nickname for someone we adored. He was
my dad in science, but I loved him like my own. He molded me into the person
that I am now. He taught me everything I know about Philippine plants, which he
knew like the palm of his hand. He was relentless in encouraging his students to
pursue botany and conservation science, so that we can all fight for the cause
of preserving every bit of Philippine biodiversity.
“One thing that I will surely miss about him was his intimate knowledge of any
Philippine plant species. There is no leaf or twig that you can show him that he
won’t be
able to give you the latin name of, the shape of the scales or the hair
type of its domatia, down to the pages of the Philippine Journal of Science
where it was first published. If you ask him, “Sir, pano nyo po nalaman [How did
you know that]?” He’d jokingly say, “Ah binulong saken ni Merrill [Merrill
whispered it to me].” Merrill was literally sir’s American idol. He was an
American botanist who devoted much of his life to the study of Philippine plants
in the early 1900s. His portrait hangs in the herbarium, where Sir Leonard would
sleep most of the time. This was Sir’s second home, after the forests. No
offense Tita Glenda [Leonard’s wife], but Sir was a plant philanderer! One time
I asked him, “Sir, alin po mas mahal nyo, si Tita Glends o ang halaman [Sir, who
do you love more, Tita Glenda or your plants]”. He scratched his head, paused
for a while, and said, “Ang hirap
naman ng tanong mo [That’s a tough question].”
So much was his love for his science that he also named his only daughter after
Linneaus, the great Swedish botanist of the 1700s!
“There is no other Filipino botanist who comes close to Sir Leonard. He was the
best of the best. Bar-none. Passionate is even an understatement to describe
him. He was a self-made man; everything he knew he pretty much learned by
himself, better than any PhD I’ve ever known. His passing is not just a big loss
to his loved ones, but more so, a catastrophic loss to this country. Whoever is
culpable for this has done our nation a great disservice because I’ve never
known anyone who knew our plants the way he did, who had so selflessly given up
anything for the cause of Philippine conservation, without any regard at all for
personal gain or self-prestige. He is indeed a national treasure, an unsung
hero.
“It is ironic that he died while collecting forest seeds for reforestation
projects. Maybe somehow he knew that some of the seeds he had planted and
nurtured 10 years ago are now ready to carry on his mission. I am one of those
seeds and so are Sandra, Uly, Hazel, Lorie. Maybe it is time for us to plant our
own seeds and train new students and enthuse others the way Sir Leonard did. May
his death, instead of crippling the conservation movement, mobilize each one of
us to continue fighting for our forests. This is the only way we can vindicate
his death. This is the only way he would want to be remembered. We owe it to
him, to ourselves and to this country. And as we leave here, may we all espouse
the mantra he lived by, from the great Harvard sociobiologist, E.O. Wilson…
“Every scrap of biological diversity is priceless, to be learned and cherished
and never
to be surrendered without a struggle.”
“Goodbye, Sir Leonard. I will really miss you. Thank you so, so much for giving
me the invaluable opportunity to learn from you. We love you. Nothing will ever
be the same again.”
* * * * *
at Today), paid tribute to the life and work of botanist Leonardo Co in an
article published last Sunday. Here is the full text. Thanks, Chuchay, for
allowing us to post this piece.
Leonardo Co: The irreplaceable ‘Sayang-tist’
* * * * *
Just heard from Michael Purugganan at NYU that the Botanical Society of America
plans to honor Leonard with a tribute in the Plant Science Bulletin.