Mangroves: Not here, but there

Mangroves form forests in the salty shallows where sea meets land, and are critical breeding grounds for all sorts of sea life, as well as being crucial for erosion control. Scientists argue over how to define what is and is not a mangrove, but in general, these are woody plants that have a very specific set of adaptations for flourishing in their salty, wet, shifting habitat (Barik & Chowdhury, 2014). These include visually striking root modifications, such as roots that grow up out of the wet soil for better access to oxygen (pneumatophores) and other above-ground roots to broaden the base of the tree and provide stability in the face of waves and shifting soil (ex. stilt roots and knee roots). The leaves have numerous adaptations for coping with water stress (xerophyllous) and glands to excrete excess salt. The fruit often germinate while still on the mother tree (viviparous) and then are water dispersed once they fall off. Despite this long list of unique traits, mangroves belong to several different families of plants, and so are a neat example of convergent evolution, where similar environments select for similar traits in unrelated organisms.

Because mangroves are woody, they are beyond the scope of this herbaceous water plant project, but there is a Mangroves of the World project ( https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mangroves-of-the-world ) if you need a closer look at these species.

If you want a closer look at their viviparous propagules (or other weird seeds or fruit washed up on a beach), the Drift Seeds and Sea Beans project ( https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/drift-seeds-and-sea-beans ) may also be worth a visit.

References:
Barik, J., & Chowdhury, S. (2014). True mangrove species of Sundarbans delta, West Bengal, eastern India. Check list, 10(2), 329-334. https://doi.org/10.15560/10.2.329

Publicado el 29 de enero de 2023 por m_whitson