Mangrove [Greek rhiza, root, and phoros, bearing, alluding to conspicuous prop roots] Mangrove [Greek rhiza, root, and phoros, bearing, alluding to conspicuous prop roots]

Shrubs or trees, with aerial prop roots and swollen stem nodes. Leaves: stipules sheathing terminal bud, caducous; blade surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences dense, dichotomously branched cymes; bracteoles forming cup just below flower. Flowers: sepals persistent in fruit; filaments absent [much shorter than anthers]; ovary apically partly surrounded by nectary, free part elongating after anthesis. Berries brown, ovoid-conic [ovoid or pyriform], leathery. Seeds: germination viviparous; hypocotyl protruding and elongating before seedling falls from fruit.

Species 8 or 9 (1 in the flora): seacoasts nearly throughout tropics and subtropics.

Lower Taxon

• Rhizophora mangle Linnaeus