The Surigao Giant

My Surigao giant required me to back up a few hundred meters to get it into frame

Dwarfs the Rav 4 and everything else 

Toog, or Petersianthus quadrialatus, is claimed to be the tallest tree in the Philippines.  You would certainly think it if you encounter a full-sized individual.  On our way to Butuan, we passed by a very large toog by the side of the road.  Toog is known to be ubiquitous in Agusan.  But the toog we saw was still in Surigao del Sur.  All other adjacent trees were dwarfed by this giant.

This toog is definitely the largest tree I have ever seen (the next largest was the parasol tree standing at Mulawin Creek in UPLB but now already gone). I had to walk two hundred meters away from the tree just to make it fit into my camera's frame. I have seen toog trees before in Mt. Makiling (where they were introduced in the UPLB College of Forestry). But those pale in comparison to the majestic specimen in Surigao.  

Seeing this Surigao wonder, I wonder how much bigger are the Agusan trees.   The toog seems to be fairly common also in Surigao.  They stand out in the landscape, jutting out from the forest canopy. Hopefully they would remain a fixture in the East Mindanao landscape for a long time...

Rey Jose is trying to size up the humongous tree trunk's girth

Another toog in Surigao but signficantly smaller