Trees & Plants

Gray mangrove

Baru

Avicennia marina (Forssk.)

Very rare. Only a few individual trees were observed Wood is hard and durable, suitable for various construction purposes. Leaves are good fodder. Quality honey is obtained from this species. Bark yields a brown dye. Root and stem bark are used as aphrodisiac. The aqueous extract

Details

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uses: Wood is hard and durable, suitable for various construction purposes. Leaves are good fodder. Quality honey is obtained from this species. Bark yields a brown dye. Root and stem bark are used as aphrodisiac. The aqueous extract of the seed is used against sores. Unripe fruits are poulticed in onto wounds and leaves onto skin ailments.
family: Avicenniaceae
synonym: Secura marina Forssk.
description: Much branched evergreen trees, to 10 m high. Pneumatophores straight, pencil like, brown; branchlets more or less for 4-angled, swollen at nodes. Leaves simple, × opposite, decussate, to 7 4 cm; lamina lanceolate or elliptic-ovate, silvery white tomentose beneath; lateral nerves 4-7 pairs, Th parallel; petiole with a basal groove, having dark or black marginal hairs continuous in a line across the node. Flowers 5 mm long, bisexual, yellow, in axillary or terminal compound spikes; bracts and bracteoles persistent in the fruit. Calyx brownish- green, sepals 5, densely pubescent outside, persistent. Corolla yellow, glabrous within, fleshy, silvery pubescent outside, corolla tube 4-lobed. Stamens as many as corolla lobes; anthers bilobed. Ovary imperfectly unilocular; ovules 4, pendulous; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a capsule, greenish, silvery tomentose; seed one. Vierh.
native range: Unknown
distribution: Paleotropics
english names: Gray mangrove
flowering fruiting: March – July
occurrence maldives: Very rare. Only a few individual trees were observed