Rhizophora apiculata Blime

Type
Indigenous
Family
Rhizophoraceae
Local Name
Kaya kandel
Habit
Small sized tree
Botanical Features

Evergreen trees, trunk and lower branches supported by numerous profusely looping stilt roots and prop roots corky, lenticellate; bark brown, fissured; branchlets terete, glabrous, reddish-brown or greyish-white, with conspicuous circular, scaly, brown stipular scar. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate, clustered towards the apex; stipules interpetiolar, 9 x 1.5 cm, pale red; petiole 20-30 mm long, stout, grooved above, pale green, glabrous; lamina 13-17 x 4-7 cm, elliptic, oblong, oblanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, base cuneate, apex apiculate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous, dark, green above, pale green beneath; lateral nerves 10-15 pairs, slender, pinnate, flowers greenish-white, fruit a drupe, 2-4 cm long, conical, pericarp brown, thick, leathery, seed one.