Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Grey Mangrove

Last year a friend challenged me to learn the local mangroves. She said that if I could sort out all the shorebirds (which she apparently finds difficult!) then surely I could manage a few mangrove species. So since then I have been looking at all mangroves more carefully and taking photos to record changes I see.
The Grey Mangrove (Avicennia marina) is a tall tree (up to 20M) and more open than many of the other mangrove species. This tree is also called the White Mangrove. This is the kind of mangrove that Grey-tailed Tattlers like to roost in as they have a good view around for any danger that may approach. The tree is notable for the many small pencil shaped breathing roots (pneumataphores) which it sends up all around it and which also extend in lines from the larger underground roots. (The blue color of this photo was a 'trick' of the light caused by the reflection of a very blue sky.)This year there was a very heavy flowering. The flower is small and a yellowish color. It has a sweet perfume like a very ripe fruit. I had noticed this smell over a number of years as I paddled around one area of the bay but had not connected it to this mangrove flower until this year. There were so many flowers on these trees this year that it was impossible not to notice!After the flowers the trees set great numbers of fruit.As they fell from the trees the tides carried them into heaps on the beach.The fruit lay there until germination opened up the outer casing and where the conditions were right the fruit then embedded itself into the sand and mud. It finally sent down roots and pushed up a stem and opened further into developing leaves. Only a few fruit develop like this and conditions must be right for them to grow further. I have noticed ones that opened and rooted last year and they are still only a few inches high after 12 months. (I don't know why I still think of smaller measurements as inches! About 150-200mm in the other measurement!)

12 comments:

  1. Very interesting Mick great post

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  2. Hi Mick I have never worked out quite how those familiar "double-looking" seeds developed. Your photos show it very nicely.
    Denis

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  3. Hi Denis, it was interesting for me to actually photograph the process by which the seeds open and start growing. We looked at them and pulled them apart as kids to try to work it all out!

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  4. love this post, Mick. Great info and photos. Mangroves are definitely interesting, I always enjoy seeing them when we're in the right place.

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  5. Thanks JN. Do they occur in the USA? and if so where, please.

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  6. Mick, there are mangroves in Hawaii and (I think) in Florida too.

    Lovely sequence of photos!

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  7. Thanks Snail, and thanks for the answers. Obvious when you think logically but unfortunately I was going down the west coast in my mind and couldn't see further than that.

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  8. Hi Mick you have spurred my conscience a bit as I too have realised I really must learn more about mangroves! Its just too damn easy to lump them all into a box called "Mangroves" and continue gazing at crabs, fish, birds or whatever. Great story and sweet photos too!

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  9. Hi Russel, and here I thought I was the only one who had decided they were just too hard :-) I have an added incentive as one of the universities is sponsoring a "Mangrove Watch" around the bay and so there are a number of people becoming more knowledgeable - it's a point of honor that I must catch up!

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  10. Hi Mick Great post. Good that you are taking the time to understand the mangove species in your back yard. Have you noticed that Grey mangrove does not like living too far up the tidal estuary and cuts out completely below a certain salt level. While others will take their place.
    Allen

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  11. Hi Allen, thanks for the further info - I haven't got that far to understand why the different species are in different places but I shall start looking at that next.

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