ipil tree

With the Philippines being a hot pot of different cultures and languages, it is easy for the names of plants to get mixed up. A name could refer to a certain plant in one region but mean something else in another. A single plant can be referred to by different names but they actually mean the same thing, while some plants may be mistaken for another because of how common names tend to be misused.

An example is how ipil (Intsia bijuga) is interchanged with ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) even though they are two different species.

Ipil (Intsia bijuga). Photo by Denis Prévôt from Wikimedia Commons.

Ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala). Photo by タクナワン from Wikimedia Commons.

The two species both belong to the family Fabaceae, also called Leguminosae. This expansive family includes soybeans, peanuts, and alfalfa. It even includes narra (Pterocarpus indicus), the national tree of the Philippines. Ipil and ipil-ipil both produce legume-bearing pods, but this might be where the similarity ends.

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