Trees & Plants

Pointed Asiatic mangrove

Thakafathi

Rhizophora apiculata Blume

Rare. Restricted to some of the islands The viviparous seeds are edible. The wood is a source of tannin and used as a substitute for petroleum coke. It is also used to make charcoal. Tannin from the bark is useful as a mosquito repellent. The intricate stem with several stilt roo

Details

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uses: The viviparous seeds are edible. The wood is a source of tannin and used as a substitute for petroleum coke. It is also used to make charcoal. Tannin from the bark is useful as a mosquito repellent. The intricate stem with several stilt roots are effective as 4, tide-brakers and check land run offand form an ideal niche for several faunal species.
family: Rhizophoraceae
synonym: Rhizophora candelaria DC. fl
description: Trees to 15 m high; trunk and lower branches supported by numerous corky, lenticellate, profusely looping stilt roots and prop roots; bark brown, fissured. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate, 13-17 × 4-7 cm, elliptic, oblanceolate or ovate- lanceolate, dark green above, pale green to beneath, clustered towards the apex; stipules interpetiolar, pale red. Flowers × greenish-white, to 2.2 1.5 cm, sessile, in axillary unbranched 2-flowered cymes. to Calyx externally fissured, brownish-yellow outside and yellowish-white; lobes 4, ovate- oblong, acute, fleshy, persistent. Petals 4, free, narrow-lanceolate, acute, white, thin, flat, persistent. Stamens 11 or 12, free, inserted on the margin of the receptacular disc. Fruit a drupe, 2-4 cm long, conical, pericarp brown, thick, calyx lobes reflexed; × seed one; hypocotyle to 50 1.8 cm, piercing the apex of the fruit, cylindric, thick towards the radicle tip.
native range: Asia-Pacific region
distribution: Asia-Pacific and Australia
english names: Pointed Asiatic mangrove · Tall-stilt mangrove
flowering fruiting: Th roughout the year
occurrence maldives: Rare. Restricted to some of the islands