Philippine Mats Part 7

This pandan (P. utilissimus) is known in most places where it grows as "pandan" or "pandan totoo," the true or tame pandan. It is extensively used in Laguna and Tayabas and is remarkable for its very large leaves and its heavy fruit. The tree occurs in groups in dry ground but thrives best in half shade near streams. It attains a height of from 4 to 8 meters. The trunk branches toward the top and is supported by a few short and thick prop roots.

The leaves are often 5 meters long and 2 decimeters wide. The lower part of the older leaves stands up straight, while the upper half droops. The younger leaves are erect with only their tips bent down. The leaf spines are short, blunt, and conical.

The fruits look like the jackfruit and are very large and heavy, being often 6 decimeters long and 2 decimeters in diameter and weighing at times 25 or more kilograms. The drupes ripen slowly and gradually; they are red in color when fully mature and possess a peculiar faint odor. It takes some time before all the drupes are shed, and in a grove of fruiting trees they can be found in all stages of maturity during the month of May.

P. utilissimus is found growing wild throughout the plateau region of Majayjay, Luisiana, and Cavinti in Laguna Province, and extending into Tayabas Province. It is only the leaves from those plants which have been set out in plots, however, that are utilized in the making of mats, hats and telescope baskets. Like sabutan, this pandan grows best in the half-shade near streams, and leaves grown in the sun are considered inferior. Nevertheless, no attempt seems to be made to select a locality for their propagation, and plots are planted wherever land is available. This pandan will not live in stagnant water and is particularly adapted to hill-sides where there is a constant flow.

The most satisfactory statistics on the propagation of P. utilissimus are obtained from Cavinti, where the plant has been introduced within recent years and suckers are still being brought in from other towns. It is stated that suckers one-half meter in height mature in about three years, while suckers one meter in height or over will produce suitable leaves in one year or less. The most satisfactory results are obtained by transplanting the mature plants, since leaves are obtainable in a few months and in half a year suckers large enough for transplanting are produced. It is stated that in setting the plants out, the undergrowth is cleared away and the suckers are placed in the ground about 1 1/2 meters apart. Some attention is given to the young plants such as loosening the earth around them; but as soon as they obtain a good foothold no cultivation is attempted.

Usually weavers own their patch of pandan from which the leaves are obtained for making the straw. Several workers sometimes have a patch in common and the few weavers who do not own pandans themselves must purchase. The leaves are sold on the tree, the purchaser cutting them off with a bolo. The price is from 20 to 30 centavos per hundred, depending upon their size, softness, thickness, and imperfections. The longest, thinnest, darkest green leaves, with the fewest imperfections, are considered the best and cost the most. In Cavinti, where the leaves are imported from Luisiana and Majayjay, the price of the best leaves is 50 centavos per hundred. The estimates of the number of leaves yielded by a plant in a year differ considerably. By some it is stated that on the average one leaf is produced per month; others report that from three to five leaves are gathered in from three to six weeks.

The thorns are removed from the edges, and the midrib is cut away, thus reducing the leaf into two halves, each of which is again divided. These strips are placed in the sun for half a day. The unique process in the preparation of this pandan straw is the rolling which occurs at this point. While it is probable that any roller with sufficient weight could be used, that employed in the pandan districts of Laguna is the primitive "iluhan" by which sugar-cane and copra are also crushed. It consists essentially of three heavy wooden horses, in the grooves of which a log, heavily weighted with stones, rotates. The pandan lengths are placed in one of the grooves underneath the log and so rolled. The object of the process is to make the material thinner and more pliable. Straw is stripped from the lengths thus prepared by the use of the gauge. [20] The straw is then further dried in the sunshine and is ready to be woven. Sometimes the lengths are stripped before being rolled, hence the straw is left in the sunshine for another half day and then placed under the log in the iluhan.

Mats are woven in Majayjay and Luisiana only, the weavers of Cavinti devoting their entire time to the fabrication of hats. The mats are woven of single straw, but they are fairly thick and not at all limber. The number produced per week runs probably into the thousands, of which about 75 per cent are made of coa.r.s.e straw and are intended for use in drying palay, copra, etc. These mats are known as "bangkoan," a word having about the same significance as "bastos;"

that is, coa.r.s.ely or poorly made. The finer and better made mats are intended for use as sleeping mats and for the floor. They are decorated with colored buri straw, usually in some shade of red produced by mordanting with kolis leaves and boiling with sappan wood as explained for buri straw. Occasionally, other colors are used, produced from the imported coal-tar ("Chino") dyes, but in all cases the shades produced are not very pleasing. The decorations are embroidered in, and consist of simple borders in straight lines with an open center design of somewhat the same pattern. When first woven, the mats are usually of a dark green color. Before being sold, they are placed in the sun, which changes them to a grayish color somewhat resembling sabutan. After long use, however, the final shade is yellowish green.

There seems to be but little division of labor in the production of these mats. Usually the whole family goes out into the patch and cuts the leaves, removing the thorns before bringing them home. Only women weave the mats. In Majayjay a few workers color their own buri straw used in decorating the mats, but for the most part this material is obtained from dyers, one a Chinese, the other a Filipino, who prepare it for sale.

The weavers are independent of advances by brokers and sell their product to Filipinos or to the representatives of Chinese merchants in Pagsanjan and Manila. A few weavers take their mats to Lukban, whence they are distributed over Tayabas Province, but many more are gathered up by these brokers and sold in the market at Pagsanjan. The mat market there usually occupies one whole sidewalk running the length of the market building.

The pandan mats of Majayjay and Luisiana are notable for their strength and durability, and are excellent for the floor or bath. In price they range from P0.50 to P5.00. The usual price of the decorated mats is P1.50. The demand continues brisk and prices have recently risen. The weakest point in the mat at the present time is in the colored buri straw used to decorate it, for this tears long before the pandan shows signs of wear. If colored sabutan straw is subst.i.tuted for the buri, a much stronger and probably more pleasing article will result. [21]

Karagumoy. [22]

The pandan P. simplex, known as "karagumoy" or "carogumoy," is the economic pandan of the Bicol peninsula in southern Luzon. It is usually found growing in well drained soil under the shade of banana and abaca plants and areca palms. It needs this protection because the leaves are easily broken or ruined by hard winds. The leaves are generally longer than those of sabutan (they are 2 meters to 3 1/2 meters in length) and are but from 6 cm. to 10 cm. wide. They are very thick, being practically as coa.r.s.e as the leaves of P. utilissimus. They bear stout spines on the midrib and along the margins, from two centimeters to three centimeters apart. A fungus disease often attacks them, causing dry hard patches, and not only spoiling the color but also making the material so brittle that it breaks in the preparation of the straw.

The plant is propagated by means of suckers in patches seldom over a half hectare in extent and often consisting of a few plants back of the house. The suckers are set out in rows and are probably one year old when the first leaves are taken, though the workers disagree on this point. At a specified time, from eight to fifteen leaves are cut from the plant each year; at other periods, two or three may be taken from the same plants. Most of the leaves are harvested during the rainy season. Karagumoy leaves have a commercial value in many of the places in which the plant occurs. In Tabaco, Albay, women cut the leaves and carry them in large bundles to the market, where they are sold at prices usually varying from 8 to 12 centavos per hundred.

Throughout the Province of Albay mats are made from karagumoy, and in some towns the industry is of considerable importance. For instance, in the barrio of San Lorenzo in Tabaco, mats may be found in the making in nearly every house. In Sorsogon, too, the industry is widespread though not so important commercially. In Balusa the production is large enough to supply the local demand and leave a surplus for export to neighboring towns. In the Bicol provinces karagumoy is considered the best of all straws for the production of mats. In price the mats vary from thirty to ninety centavos, according to fineness.

In preparing the material, the spines and midrib are first removed and the leaves are divided into four strips of about equal width. The straw is prepared from these with the knife and gauge; it is dried in the shade for a few hours and drawn several times over a piece of bamboo as explained for sabutan in order to make it more supple and smooth. The mats are woven in the early morning and at night, the straw being more pliable then. Attempts have been made in the schools to dye karagumoy but no success has yet been attained. The mats are plain.

Bariu.

The stem of this plant, P. copelandii, grows from 4 to 9 meters high. The leaves have an average length of 2.1 meter and a width of 8 cm. [23] Spines occur along the entire margin. Near the base they are comparatively coa.r.s.e and from 3 to 4 mm. long. Towards the apex of the margins and midveins, the spines are short and close together like the teeth of a fine saw. From 3 to 5 heads generally form on the fruit stalk, each of them from 7 to 12 cm. long and 5 to 7 cm. across, at first pale yellowish in appearance but soon turning red. Their drupes are 14 mm. long and 3 to 4 mm. in diameter. This pandan is found in Cagayan, Benguet, Nueva Ecija, Samar, Bohol, Occidental Negros, Capiz, Surigao, Davao, and other provinces. [24]

This pandan is not of economic importance in central and southern Luzon. In the Bicol provinces it is used to some extent but it is considered inferior to other materials. In parts of the Visayas, such as Bohol, Capiz and Samar, it is utilized to a considerable extent, but cannot be considered of commercial importance. It is the economic pandan of Surigao, but even there its commercial importance is local only.

Table showing comparative measurements of certain Philippine pandans.

P. Sabutan. P. P. P.

tectorius. utilissimus. simplex. copelandii.

Height of trunk 3 to 6 m 2 to 4 m 4 to 8 m 6 m 4 m.

Leaves: Length 1.35 m 2 m 5 m 2 to 3.5 m 2.1 m.

Width 6 cm 6 cm 20 cm 6 to 10 cm 8 cm.

Thickness Medium Fine Thick Thick Medium.

Fruit: Length 20 cm 60 cm 9 cm 7 to 12 cm.

Thickness 18 cm 20 cm 9 cm 5 to 7 cm.

Drupes-- Length 5.5 cm 7 to 8 cm 3 cm 14 mm.

Thickness 2.5 to 3 cm 2 cm 1 cm 3 to 4 mm.

Number in head 50 to 80 Many Many Many.

Pandans of Minor Utility.

The species P. radicans is reported as olango from Leyte, w.a.n.go in Bohol, ow.a.n.go in Surigao and uyagno in Sorsogon. It is usually found growing along rivers and in marshes. The trunk reaches a height of 8 m. and its largest leaves may be 6 m. long and 12 cm. wide. There are from 6 to 10 dark brick red fruits in a cl.u.s.ter. The fruit is 14 cm. long and 8 cm. wide and contains 100 or more drupes. Each drupe is 2.5 cm. in length and 12 mm. in diameter. The leaves are made into straw from which coa.r.s.e mats are woven.

Taboan is the name given to Panda.n.u.s dubius in Surigao while in Bohol it is known as bacong. It is a rare species. It is said to be a heavy, clumsy appearing tree with stem about 8 m. high, wide spreading branches near the top, and soft, pulpy and stringy wood. The flowers are grouped into an inflorescence. The male inflorescence, about 60 cm. long and partly covered by creamy yellow bracts, is erect and occurs at the end of the branches. The leaves are deep green in color on both sides, with an average length of 2.25 cm. and a width of 20 cm. The drupes of this pandan are from 8 cm. to 13 cm. long and from 5 cm. to 8 cm. wide. The plant is utilized to a small extent in making mats.

In the Tagalog speaking provinces of Bulacan, Bataan, and in and around Manila, Panda.n.u.s luzonensis is called "alasas." It is also called "pandan" but this name should be reserved for Panda.n.u.s tectorius. The former is restricted in its habitat to the provinces around Manila Bay, while the latter is found in most of the seacoast provinces of the Philippines as well as in other tropical parts of the world. Panda.n.u.s luzonensis attains a greater height than Panda.n.u.s tectorius, but has narrower leaves than the latter. The male flowers are borne in a fleshy, much-branched inflorescence from 20 to 30 cm. long. Each branch is partly surrounded by a broad thin bract, 8 cm. wide. Each individual flower has from 4 to 9 stamens. The whole fruit is about 20 centimeters long and contains from 30 to 60 drupes, yellowish red in color when ripe. Each drupe is from 3 to 4 cm. long, 2 to 2.5 cm. thick, and contains from 6 to 10 seeds. The straw from this pandan is of inferior quality, though it is said to be used in Bulacan for mats.

Unidentified Pandans.

Besides the pandans, the ident.i.ty of which has been explained above, there are several unidentified specimens or varieties from which mats are made. It may be that some of these will be found identical with those already discussed when sufficient botanical material has been gathered to determine them.

In Isabela Province, a pandan known as "langu" having long, strong, thin leaves, is made into mats in Santa Maria, Delena and Bolasi.

Mats are made along the coast of Cagayan Province, in the Ilocano barrios of the towns of Claveria and Sanchez Mira, from a pandan known as "pataga." These are very coa.r.s.e and thick and have an unusually shiny surface. According to Mr. Otto Harwood, the leaves vary in length from 10 cm. to 35.5 cm. and in width from 7.5 cm. to 15 cm. The straw is made by cutting the leaf into strips and drying them in the sun. Although the industry is yet small, it is developing.

A species of pandan is employed in the towns of Camalaniugan, Aparri, Gataran, and Lal-loc in Cagayan Province for making mats. Locally they are valued at from 40 to 50 centavos, but in Isabela Province to which they are exported they sell for as high as a peso and a half.

The only munic.i.p.ality in Pangasinan province in which the making of mats has reached provincial and interprovincial importance is Bolinao. The species of pandan employed is not known. The mats are shipped to towns along the seacoast of Ilocos and Zambales Province by sailing vessels, and are sold in the local markets or to local merchants.

In Mindoro the town of Subang makes pandan mats which are shipped to Batangas, Cavite, and Manila.

Two pandans, called lingo and baring were sent to the General Office of the Bureau of Education from Guindalman, Bohol. It was impossible to identify them as no fruit was included. They probably represent two new species. Lingo has a leaf 2.9 m. in length and of an almost uniform width of 5.5 cm. At 80 cm. from the tip, it is 4.5 cm. wide, then gradually becomes ac.u.minate. The marginal spines are 2 mm. long, curved forward, from 6 to 8 mm. apart near the stem, but closer together at the distal one-third of the leaf. Spines of 1 mm. or less in length and 4 mm. or less apart, curved forward and extending throughout the length of the leaf, occur on the lower surface of the midrib only. The surface of the leaf is smooth and shiny. The leaf of baring is 72 cm. long, 2.8 cm. wide, apparently spineless, smooth and fine in texture. Both of these pandans would probably yield good industrial materials.

In Iloilo, the town of Banate has a pandan mat industry of interprovincial importance, whose product is an article of commerce as far as Negros. The mats sell at about 50 centavos each.

There is a large export of pandan mats from Dao, Antique, to the province of Iloilo.

Pandan mats are exported from Cuyo Island in Palawan. Some are sent to the mainland of Palawan and others to Antique.

The Moro pandan mats are the most richly colored of all those produced in the Philippines. At this writing, information is not at hand to determine the method of preparing the straw or the species of pandan from which they are made. Mats which have been exhibited at successive Philippine expositions have undoubtedly been dyed with imported coloring matter. The designs are of the general effect of the mat reproduced on page 84. The colors are often well combined and the effect is very striking. The Cottabato mats are double; the under portion is woven of thick, heavy, uncolored straw, and the upper portion is of finer material; the two parts are spliced together.

Sedge Straws.