Currant or carandas, not cranberry

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

Actually, the minute he saw the photo of the “cranberries,” Good Friend P gave the correct answer right away: they are Bengal currant, a.k.a. Carissa carandas. He just got bogged down by the initial description I gave, which said they came from a 10-foot tree with no thorns. To add to the haze, there was no size reference for the fruits in the photo.

But the minute he saw the branch, with thorns, leaves and fruit, complete with a ten-peso coin as reference, P got it right away. Well, actually, many of our gardeners got it right away.

Evelyn, from Mamabel’s, wrote on my website: “the name of this plant is carissa carandas, very rich source of iron, fair source of vitamin c. It is rich in pectin and can be made into pickles, jelly, juice.”

As a plant, Evelyn said carandas is good for anti erosion because its root structure is the branching type. At the 10th Waling-Waling festival opening last Saturday at Robinsons where horticulturists, gardeners, plant and orchid lovers gathered, many had also pointed out to me the real name of “your cranberries,” as one of them put it. In fact, one of the booths there was selling fruiting carandas plants.

What really confirmed its name were the leaves and thorns. Another giveaway was the fact that white latex oozed out when they were picked from the branches; in fact, the fruits are soaked in water to remove the latex taste immediately after harvest. Still, when they were being seeded, my help said they continued to ooze out this latex.

From this exercise, I just realized our plant experts identify things by way of leaves, how they are shaped, how the veins go, how tall the plant is. I am simply awed by the kind of working knowledge these people have, to recognize the similarities and differences of these plants. As curious as I am and as interested in plants, I can never immediately recognize the leaves, much less how they are shaped and structured.

In fact, it was only when P and his expert friends asked for the leaves and branches did I take one long hard look at the leaves – and I thought they looked exactly like the ones of the creeping ivy when they grow wild and big. I did not even realize they had thorns – until somebody pointed them out to me. This was one of those times when my favorite cliché springs to life: Live and learn.

Indeed, life is one long, learning process.

Oh, by the way, the flowers of carandas are like tiny calachuchis from afar, and should be nice as an accent. But then, the fruits are nicer, so leave the flowers on the branches so they can become fruits.

And so ends my “cranberries” saga: how these fruits, sold in a convent here in Bacolod under that name, was closely examined, and finally named by enthusiasts and experts. As much as it was fun getting to know this fruit was the process by which the “problem” was posted on a Facebook wall, where everybody who knew something or had some idea about it joined the conversation.

While it opened my eyes to the energy and dynamism that animate our horticulture and gardening sectors, it also made me realize how far we have, indeed, gone in terms of communications technology. The “cranberries” conversation was quick but erudite, and was truly national, with voices from Luzon down to Mindanao participating. In fact, one of two from abroad also shared their theories. And then, of course, humor laced our conversation. At one point, the discussion turned to what the Ilonggo term “aplud” means. Good Friend L, joining from his nest halfway around the world, had this to say:

“FYI. Aplud is sending data and is the opposite of downlud.”*

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