Philippine Tambayan

Atis is cultivated throughout the Philippines and is occasionally spontaneous. It was introduced from tropical America by the Spaniards at an early date and is now pantropic in cultivation.

The plant is a small tree to 3 to 5 meters in height. The leaves are somewhat hairy when young, oblong and 8 to 15 centimeters in length, with a petiole 1 to 1.5 cm long. The flowers occur singly in the axils of the leaves and are about 2.5 cm. long. They are pendulous, hairy , three angeld, and greenish-white or yellowish. The fruit is large, somewhat heart-shaped, and 6 to 9 cm in length. The outside of the fruit is marked by polygonal tubercles. When the fruit is ripe, it is a light yellowish green. The flesh is white, sweet, soft and juicy and has a mild, very agreeable flavor.

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Tahid-labuyo is found from Mindanao to Northern Luzon from sea level to an altitude of 1,400 meters. It also occurs in India to East Africa, China, Malaya and Austalia.

It is a scandent or strangling, smooth shrub, growing from 2 to 4 meters in length, the branches of which are armed with stout, sharp straight, or somewhat recurved spines, 1 to 1.5 centimeters long. The leaves are elliptic-ovate to oblong-ovate tapering to a short point, and the base rounded. The heads are solitary or in pairs, rounded and short-peduncled. The female heads are 7 to 8 centimeters in diameter, yellowish, dense, and in fruit, fleshy and up to 5 centimeters in diameter.

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Mustasa is widely distributed in the settled areas of the Philippines, in towns, near houses, etc., planted and spontaneous. It was certainly introduced from the Asia, and is now pantropic in distribution, occurring also in some temperate regions.

                The plant is an erect, branched, smooth annual, 0.4 to 1 meter in height. The leaves are oblong-obovate to oblong lanleocate, 5 to 15 centimeters long, or in some cultivated forms much larger, thin, irregularly toothed or subentire, the lower ones sometimes being lobed or pinnatifid. The flowers are yellow and 6 to 8 millimeters long. The pod is ascending, linear-lanceolate, 1.5 to 3 centimeters long, and somewhat contracted between the seeds, and the beak is seedless.

                The leaves are eaten in the Philippines as a green leafy vegetable, either fresh or pickled in brine. Marañon shows that the leaves are excellent sources of calcium, phosphorus and iron. Hermano and Sepulveda claim that they are a good source of vitamin B.

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