May 18, 2009

Safe again

I've already posted several photos of acacia trees in this blog. In my little corner of Quezon City, they are still quite numerous and they are also the largest and most magnificent of the trees I see here. Someone commented in one of those previous posts that these acacia trees harbor lots of higad, those fuzzy, spiky caterpillars whose tiny hairs can cause extremely itchy and painful allergic reactions. That's very true. But with higad season (around March or the beginning of summer) over, it's safe to walk underneath them again. These acacias line Roxas Avenue in the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines.

acacia trees in U.P. Diliman

25 comments:

Olivier said...

ces arbres sont vraiment impressionnant, ils sont immenses et très beaux
these trees are truly impressive, they are huge and very beautiful

bertN said...

How old are these acacia trees now?

Lois said...

Looks like they provide quite a bit of shade in addition to being really pretty trees!

Halcyon said...

I'm glad it's safe again. I have always loved acacias and these are beautiful old specimens.

Lowell said...

They are big and beautiful. It's hard to imagine not being able to walk underneath them because a funny caterpillar might drop on you and cause a problem.

Have a great week, Hilda!

Mo said...

They are so incredibly huge. How old are they.

B SQUARED said...

A lot like our large Oak trees.

George said...

The trees are absolutely magnificent.

Cezar and Léia said...

Hello dear Hilda!
Those trees are fantastic! I love this kind of tree, so magnificent !
I bet this avenue is great for a walk by
Kind regards
Léia

By the way, last year in "Happy at Home"you wrote about a new hair dye that you found and aproved. I can't find now the post again.Did you remmember its name or brand?
Many thanks!

marley said...

Very grand trees!

VP said...

They are huge! How old the may be? Are higad something alike pine processionaries?

Nathalie H.D. said...

They are gorgeous trees indeed. It WOULD be a shame to cut them down!

Having the cars in the photo helps give us a scale and they are really impressive!

Anonymous said...

They're magnificent - minus the caterpillars, I wouldn't mind having one of those trees in my yard.!

Carlos Lorenzo said...

I love those majestic trees. It is difficult to find such splendor here in Europe.

James said...

Those are big trees but I'd like to see them next to California redwoods.

Cezar and Léia said...

Hello again !
Just, I would like to thank you for your hint!
:-) you are very kind!
Léia

escape said...

that makes UP diliman a very beautiful university despite the old structures.

airplane5312 said...

Hehe, attack caterpillars. I smell a horror movie.

Reena said...

wohoo! alma mater! i love the acads oval. :)

nahigad ako back in college. don't know how i survived. hehe.

Baruch said...

The Acacias are so beautiful

Bergson said...

the trees are so big that cars seem miniature

Unknown said...

Everytime I hear the word acacia I allways think of the gorgeous flat canopy trees in Africa, but in fact, there are lots of different species and these are wonderful too!

lunarossa said...

I love trees in general but these are very majestic and beautiful. Thanks for this beautiful photo! Ciao. A.

Hilda said...

Bert, Mo & Vogon Poet:
If they were planted around the same time as those of the Ateneo de Manila University, these are about 60 years old.

Vogon Poet:
I've just looked up processional pine caterpillar. It looks similar to what we call higad except that ours have black spikes rather than white. I don't think they're the same though. I've never heard that ours form those processional lines and in fact, we usually just see them solo. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who knows the scientific name of our higad and a web search didn't help either.

James:
I think our acacias will be downright puny compared to California redwoods!

Snapshutter:
LOL! I like that! :D

Lisa Wilson said...

Those trees are beautiful! Look perfect for climbing, too.