Trees & Plants

Red apple mangrove

Kulha

Sonneratia caseolaris (L.) Engl.

Common in some of the northern islands The wood is heavy and used for boat building and other construction purposes. The pneumatophores are good as corks or floats for fishing nets. The leaves are used as fodder. Young fruits are widely used in chutneys and curries. Ripe fruits,

Details

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uses: The wood is heavy and used for boat building and other construction purposes. The pneumatophores are good as corks or floats for fishing nets. The leaves are used as fodder. Young fruits are widely used in chutneys and curries. Ripe fruits, said to taste like cheese, are eaten raw or cooked. A or clear jelly is prepared from the fruits. Fruits are also used to make vinegar. The plant is a folk remedy for sprains and worms. to of ©
family: Sonneratiaceae
synonym: Rhizophora caseolaris L., Sonneratia acida L. f.
description: Trees to 25 m high, bark fissured; of × pneumatophores to 50 6 cm, straight, stout, corky, brownish grey or orange- coloured, outer layer flaky; bark brown, Th cracked; branchlets angled, nodes swollen flwith 2 lateral pair of circular glands. Leaves as × simple, opposite-decussate, 4-11 3.5-6.5 cm, broadly ovate or broadly elliptic, base cuneate, apex mucronate, emarginate or obtuse, thick, slightly fleshy, green; lateral veins looped near the margin; petiole stout, × red. Flowers pink, to 6 5-7 cm, terminal, solitary; pedicel quadrangular. Calyx green outside, white within. Petals 6, free, purple to violet red, membranous, cauducous. Stamens many, free, inflexed in bud, cauducous; filaments reddish below, white above, thread like, anthers reniform, bilobed. Style coiled in bud, to 6 cm. Fruit a drupe, to 7 cm across, globose, slightly flattened, pericarp smooth; seeds many, embedded in the fleshy pulp of Engl. the placenta, angular with rough surface.
native range: Asia-Pacific
distribution: Indo-Malaysia and Australia
english names: Red apple mangrove
flowering fruiting: Th roughout the year
occurrence maldives: Common in some of the northern islands