Where does Philippine teak grow in Lobo?

It is associated with the limestone cliffs, hills and low-relief coastal forest of the Lobo coastline. Exact stands are not published here as a visitor route; the species is endangered and is studied rather than toured.

Why is Lobo a biodiversity hotspot?

In 1997 a DENR–UNEP national assessment named Lobo among eighteen terrestrial biodiversity hotspots in the Philippines. Its endemic and threatened flora, including Philippine teak, and its position on the Verde Island Passage are the reasons given.

What other rare species are found in Lobo's mountains?

The vulnerable red tea tree Leptospermum flavescens, locally malasulasi, with epiphytic Nepenthes pitcher plants growing on its branches near the Naguiling summit; the dungon-puti Heritiera sylvatica and the Luzon endemic beetle Macrophysis luzona that depends on it; the labuyo or Philippine red jungle fowl; and the native rice landraces inuway and kamuros.

Nature

Philippine teak

An endangered tree endemic to a few kilometres of Batangas coastline, with thirty-five years of research attached to it and almost no public profile.

Philippine teak, Tectona philippinensis, is an endangered tree endemic to the Philippines and found on the Lobo coast of the Verde Island Passage. It has been studied continuously in Lobo since 1990, and its association with the town's limestone cliffs, hills and low-relief forest is one of the reasons Lobo was named a national biodiversity hotspot in 1997.

Lobo's strongest terrestrial biodiversity asset is a tree most Filipinos have never heard of. Tectona philippinensis is a true teak, a close relative of the commercial species, but it is endemic to the Philippines and known from only a handful of sites — the Lobo coastline among them, on limestone cliffs, low hills and the fragmented coastal forest above the shoreline. It is listed as endangered, and the population in Lobo is one of the reasons the DENR–UNEP national assessment of 1997 placed the municipality on a list of eighteen terrestrial biodiversity hotspots in the Philippines.

What separates it from the usual roadside claim of natural richness is the paper trail. The species has been under continuous study in Lobo since 1990, including work on its population structure and reproductive phenology published in The Philippine Agricultural Scientist in 2015, and on its genetic diversity in The Philippine Scientist in 2008. That is thirty-five years of fieldwork on a single tree, on a single coast.

Where it sits in the landscape

The teak belongs to the seaward end of a ridge-to-reef system: forested peaks above, draining through the Lobo River across a narrow coastal plain into the Verde Island Passage. The same limestone and low-relief forest that carries the teak also carries the remaining fragments of beach forest and adjoins the Olo-Olo mangrove. Its inland counterpart is the mountain flora.

Other species of record

Notable species recorded in Lobo, Batangas
Species	Local name	Note
Tectona philippinensis	Philippine teak	Endangered, Philippine endemic, studied in Lobo since 1990
Leptospermum flavescens	Malasulasi, red tea tree	Vulnerable and rare, near the Naguiling summit
Nepenthes sp.	Pitcher plant	Epiphytic on malasulasi branches at the summit zone
Heritiera sylvatica	Dungon-puti	Host of the Luzon endemic beetle Macrophysis luzona
Macrophysis luzona	—	Luzon endemic beetle, studied on Mt. Banoy
Gallus gallus	Labuyo	Philippine red jungle fowl
Oryza sativa landraces	Inuway, kamuros	Vanishing native rice, still remembered in the mountain villages

Sources: Caringal et al. (2017), From logging to blogging, Asia Life Sciences 26(2): 257–282, and the teak studies named above. Field verification of any specific stand location is pending, and we do not publish stand coordinates for an endangered species.

Questions

What is Philippine teak?: Tectona philippinensis, the Philippine teak, is an endangered tree endemic to the Philippines and known from only a handful of sites, including the Lobo coast of the Verde Island Passage in Batangas.
Where does Philippine teak grow in Lobo?: It is associated with the limestone cliffs, hills and low-relief coastal forest of the Lobo coastline. Exact stands are not published here as a visitor route; the species is endangered and is studied rather than toured.
Why is Lobo a biodiversity hotspot?: In 1997 a DENR–UNEP national assessment named Lobo among eighteen terrestrial biodiversity hotspots in the Philippines. Its endemic and threatened flora, including Philippine teak, and its position on the Verde Island Passage are the reasons given.
What other rare species are found in Lobo's mountains?: The vulnerable red tea tree Leptospermum flavescens, locally malasulasi, with epiphytic Nepenthes pitcher plants growing on its branches near the Naguiling summit; the dungon-puti Heritiera sylvatica and the Luzon endemic beetle Macrophysis luzona that depends on it; the labuyo or Philippine red jungle fowl; and the native rice landraces inuway and kamuros.

Lobo, Batangas · 13°38′50″N 121°12′37″E · PSGC 0401015000

Edition 0 · Revised 27 JUL 2026