Thursday, September 13, 2012

Mangroves

Did you know if not for small mangrove crabs, the fallen-leaf mulch of mangrove forests would be carried away by each tide?  The crabs take these leaves into their burrows, where they eventually provide nutrients to the forest.
Mangrove leaves and hypocotyl  of stilt mangroves (elongated seedlings that grow right on the tree) are edible but not widely used as food.  People mainly use mangroves for wood, but also for charcoal, traditional medicine (boiled bark),  and tannins in the bark and seedlings provide a preservative dye.

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