MANGROVE 



(Rhizophora Mangle) 



THE mangrove family is large and widely scattered, but only one 

 member has gained a foothold in the United States, and it occupies 

 only limited areas in south Florida, at the delta of the Mississippi, and 

 on the coast of Texas. The family's fifteen genera are confined to the 

 tropics, with a little overlapping on the temperate zones. The botanical 

 name Rhizophora refers to the tree's peculiar roots, and mangle is the 

 Spanish for mangrove. This is one of the few trees in this country which 

 are known by a single name. It is always called mangrove, and attains 

 its best development in Florida. 



The leaves hang two years, are from three to five inches long and 

 one or two wide. Flowers are not showy, but they are nearly always 

 present, blooming the year round, the yellow blossom about an inch in 

 diameter. The fruit proper is about an inch long, but its habit of sprout- 

 ing while still on the tree and sending down a long stem-like root, gives 

 the impression that the fruit is several inches long, sometimes a foot. 



It is not an easy matter to state the average size of mangrove 

 trees. Peculiar habits of growth make measurements difficult. Neither 

 is it easy to tell where a tree begins and where it ends. Mangrove 

 thickets along some of the rivers of south Florida, within the influence 

 of tide water, are strange forms of vegetation. If the foliage alone is 

 considered from a little distance, it reminds one of a row of fig trees in 

 Louisiana or California. The color and general appearance suggests 

 fig trees. A nearer approach reveals beneath the crowns a mass of 

 roots, stems, and limbs, joined with the ground beneath and the crowns 

 above. In addition to these, there are many others that dangle from 

 above, like rope ends, some nearly touching the ground, others several 

 feet above. These are roots or limbs, by whichever name one cares to 

 call them. They grow from overhead branches, and strike for the 

 ground. When they touch the soil, they quickly anchor themselves, 

 and become stems. They then look like slender poles set as props 

 under the branches of an overladen fruit tree. 



This strange habit of growth gives the tree its character. Most 

 mangroves stand in water. They fringe the banks of rivers and bayous, 

 extending the fringe as far as the water is shallow. Growth of that 

 kind is generally from ten to twenty feet high, and the largest stems 

 from an inch in diameter up to three or four; but these dimensions 

 cannot be taken as limits to size. Sometimes the trees are sixty or 

 seventy feet high, but those which stand in water seldom reach that size. 



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