Two wildlife biologists found a Pahiopedilum haynaldianum, also known as lady’s slipper orchid, in a “local garden in the village adjacent to the forest somewhere in the Mount Busa Key Biodiversity Area.”

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Kier Mitchel E. Pitogo, resident wildlife biologist of the Protected Area Management Office of the Allah Valley Watershed Forest Reserve (DENR-PENRO South Cotabato) and his teammate Aljohn Jay Saavedra, resident botanist and Forest Extension Officer of the Protected Area Superintendent office of the Allah Valley Protected Landscape (PASu AVPL), are two scientists whose work include cataloguing plant and animal species in and around Mt. Busa, which straddles the provinces of South Cotabato and Sarangani in southern Mindanao.

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A P. haynaldianum salvaged from a cut tree was found in a garden near Mt. Busa in southern Mindanao. (Aljohn Jay L. Saavedra)

.A P. haynaldianum salvaged from a cut tree was found in a garden near Mt. Busa in southern Mindanao. (Aljohn Jay L. Saavedra)

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“When we are conducting biodiversity assessment, we also look for salvaged plants in local gardens, hoping to find a species that we have not yet recorded in the wild,”  Pitogo says. “And that’s what happened with the Pahiopedilum haynaldianum.”