Avicennia alba Blume

Habit: Medium size tree, up to 5 m tall, much-branched.

Roots: Stilt roots slender; pneumatophores fingerlike and linked to a massive cable root system below the mud surface.

Trunk & bark: The bark is dark in color, appearing grey or even black, lenticellate.

Leaves: Leaves simple, opposite, shortly petiolate, lanceolate, apex narrow acute or acuminate, base attenuate or decurrent, margin entire, 8-3 x 2 – 4 cm, dark green and shining above, silvery papillose beneath.

Inflorescences or flowers: Inflorescences terminal or axillary spikes, peduncles 2.5-3.5 cm long. Flowers small, regular, bisexual, a yellow-orange color, fragrant; calyx 5 lobed, ovate; corolla tube short, 4 lobed; stamens 4, adnate to corolla throat, anther cells ellipsoid; ovary 4 celled, style tapering, stigma bifid.

Fruits: Fruits conical, curved, and up to 4 cm long, apex short-beaked, densely tomentose.

Seeds /seedling: Seeds solitary, erect, cotyledons large.

Habitat and ecology: A conspicuous and important mangrove tree. Substantial trees were found growing in soft mud on the gently sloping banks of estuarine rivers and as a pioneer species on newly formed mudflats near river mouths. This species has a high tolerance to hypersaline conditions. It is fast-growing and sprouts easily after frequent cuts.

Cryptovivipary. Germination is epigeal or modified epigeal. The pericarp is finely hairy and yellow-green in color, once shed it releases a dark green viviparous seed. These buoyant seeds can be found entwined by their hypocotyl hairs in clusters on tidal mud near parent trees or often found drifted in tropical sandy beaches.

Flower visitors are insects and honeybees.

New findings and phylogenetic analysis have revealed that A. alba has a close resemblance to  A. rumphiana (Li et al. 2016).

The major threat to this species is the conversion of tidal wetlands to fish ponds and other land uses. This species is locally threatened due to the destruction of mangrove habitat, particularly at the extremities of its range.

Wood is used as fuel; leaves are used for fodder and fishfood; flowers are a rich source of honey and beewax.