Herbarium Specimen from Mt Pinatubo
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Herbarium specimen from Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines: Alyxia concatenata belongs to the Oleander family which also includes the frangipani, several species of allamanda, crape jasmine and confederate jasmine. This herbarium specimen is a valuable historical record of the type of flora that used to thrive on Mt Pinatubo, prior to its violent eruption in June 1991.
Before 1991, Mt Pinatubo was inconspicuous and heavily eroded. It was covered in dense forest which supported a population of several thousand indigenous people, the Aeta, who had fled to the mountains from the lowlands when the Spanish conquered the Philippines in 1565. After lying dormant for more than four centuries, Mt Pinatubo produced the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century. It ejected more than more than 5 billion cubic meters of ash and pyroclastic debris. This natural disaster was to leave 847 people dead, 184 injured, 23 missing, and more than 1 million people displaced.
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