Orange Mangrove

Appearance

A tree that can grow up to 35m, though usually smaller, around 7-20m, it has a glabrous, smoothish, trunk with reddish brown bark. The tree develops short prop-roots rather than long stilt-roots. The green elliptic leaves are 5–15 cm long. Flowers are solitary, with white or cream petals, that soon turn brown up to 1.5 cm long, pinkish-green to reddish brown calyx. The fruit are turbinate, 2 cm long, when mature, the spindle-shaped fruits drop and become embedded in the mud in an upright position, where they rapidly develop roots. The seeds, when still on tree, have a hypocotyl up to 11 cm long.

Naming

As well as its botanical name, the tree is known by many common, or vernacular names. These include:
Marshall Islands ''jon'';
Kosrae ''sraol'';
Pohnpei ''sohmw'';
Chuuk ''ong'';
Yap ''yangach'';
Northern Australia ''orange mangrove'';
Wanigela, Northern Province, Papua New Guinea ''kavela'', ''mangrove bean''.;
Thyanhngayth dialect, Awngthim language ''nhomb'';
Sapek people, Supiori, Papua Province, Indonesia ''arouw''
Batjamal ''benmerr'';
Emi ''kunyme'';
Palau ''denges'';
Yue Chinese 木欖;
Khmer ''prâsak' nhi'', ''prâsak' toch'', ''prâsak' tük'';
Telugu ''thuddu ponna'', ''uredi'';
Maldives ''bodu kaṇḍū'', ''boda vaki''.;
Kiswahili ''muia'', ''mkoko wimbi'';
South African English ''black mangrove'';
English ''large-leafed mangrove'', ''oriental mangrove'';

Distribution

The tree is found as a native on the coasts of places bordering the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, and parts of the western Pacific Ocean. Regions that it is native to include: Caroline Island, Samoa, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Gilbert Islands, Nauru, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Queensland, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, Nansei-shoto, Borneo, Jawa, Hainan, Christmas Island, Southeast China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nicobar Islands, Andaman Islands, India , Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Aldabra, Seychelles, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Mozambique Channel Islands, Tanzania, Mozambique, KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces.

It has become extinct in Taiwan, and is naturalized in Florida.

Habitat

The tree grows on intertidal mud-flats and estuaries, 0-2m, on the less exposed parts of the coast, with a rainfall of 1000-8000mm. Common associates on Pacific Island include other mangrove species. The species grows on a wide range of soils, but does best in river estuaries, salt water habitats on an alluvial sediment allows the tree to spread with its adventitious roots.

The black mangrove is a protected tree in South Africa.