Scientists name new tree species after FEU founder

MANILA, Philippines — Three Filipino scientists who discovered a new plant species in Argao, Cebu have named it after the founder and first president of Far Eastern University (FEU), Dr. Nicanor Reyes Sr.

The taxonomy research team composed of Grecebio Jonathan Alejandro, Axel Arriola and Marcos Valdez Jr. discovered the discospermum reyesii in an effort to update Philippine flora specifically those belonging to the rubiaceae (coffee) family.

“As an alumni of the FEU, it’s a way of giving back and to honor the founder and first president of the university,” Arriola, BS Biology graduate in 2000, told The STAR.

The scientists said Reyes made several innovations in the cultural and educational sector in the early 20th century, and helped make tertiary education affordable to many underprivileged Filipinos. FEU, upon its founding in 1928, was the country’s first institution to offer an accountancy course.

FEU is celebrating this year its 90th founding anniversary.

The principal investigator of the taxonomy effort is Alejandro, BS Biology graduate of FEU with a doctorate in Natural Sciences, magna cum laude, from the Universitat Bayreuth in Germany. Alejandro is also 2006 Outstanding Young Scientist Awardee of the National Academy of Science and Technology-Department of Science and Technology in Biological Sciences.

Valdez, on the other hand, is currently an FEU Research Fellow teaching at the Graduate School. He has an agricultural science doctorate from Nagoya University and was named 2012 Outstanding Young Scientist Awardee in Animal Sciences of the NAST-DOST. He finished BS Biology major in Genetics at UP Los Baños.

Valdez said their taxonomy effort was led by Alejandro, the country’s leading authority on the rubiaceae family.

Arriola said that the Philippines’ diverse flora presents a challenge for taxonomists to study its rich biological resources.

“Most of the names of the species here are outdated with respect to new evidence using morphological and molecular data. We’re trying to update those species that were recognized already,” Arriola said.

“We conduct botanical explorations and herbarium visits to recollect and update these ‘undertreated’ species,” he said. “It’s the work of Filipino taxonomists or botanists to look for them and assess based on new classifications, new circumscriptions, new taxonomic evidence.”

Valdez said that they are likely to discover new plant species as they pursue their taxonomic effort. “Our biological resources here are underexplored,” he said.

The discospermum reyesii is the third such recognized species in the Philippines after the discospermum whitfordii and discospermum philippinensis, the latter of which was also discovered by Alejandro and Arriola in 2013. 

The scientists have published their latest discovery in the Annales Botanici Fennici, an international science journal.

“In giving names, you need to conform with the rules of the ICN or International Code of Nomenclature for Plants, Algae and Fungi,” Arriola said. “So that your new species will be recognized.”