Avicennia germinans; Mangle Negro
Family: Avicenniaceae
Plant Description: Evergreen shrub to 120 cm or higher with leathery, elliptic or oblong leaves 4-89 cm long. Leaves simple and opposite, shiny, margins entire. Flowers mostly in terminal clusters, the corolla 10-12 mm wide, white with yellow throat, 4-lobed. Fruit usually one-seeded.
Plant Trivia:
Field Identification:
Occurrence: In local abundance on moist, salt soils along beaches or on marshy islands (very low elevation bay beach areas) from Packery Channel, Port Aransas and Harbor Island. More common on South Padre Island. Very susceptible to freeze. Pneumatophores (root branches that stick up from the mud) provide nursery area for a number of marine mammals.
Bloom Period: July-September
Plant Use: Branches provide habitat for birds
Key to Genera if needed:
stxflora 