Avicennia officinalis
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Avicennia officinalis , illustration |
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Avicennia officinalis is a mangrove species from the genus Avicennia . Their range extends from the coasts of South Asia to Australia .
description
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Avicennia officinalis is an evergreen mangrove tree that reaches a height of 25 meters and a trunk diameter of 1 meter. Long, horizontally running roots extend from the trunk, from which a large number of upright respiratory roots branch off. The bark of young trees is thin and brown-gray, while older trees are rough and black-gray.
The thick and leathery leaves are 4 to 12 inches long and 2 to 6 inches wide. The leaf shape is ovate to broadly elliptical and obovate with a rounded tip and a pointed to rounded base. The leaf margins are curled down a little. The upper side of the leaf is bright green and glabrous, the underside is hairy with fine gray-green hair.
The flowers are in upright head-shaped, about 15 centimeters large panicles of up to 12 individual flowers at the ends of the branches. The individual flowers are similar in shape to those of the black mangrove ( Avicennia germinans ). They are 7 to 10 millimeters long and 12 to 15 millimeters wide, making them the largest flowers of the eastern Avicennia species. The flowers are sessile and offensive. The calyx is five-lobed and hairy on the edges. The corolla is somewhat zygomorphic, bell-shaped and four-lobed, the inside is bare. It is initially yellow to yellowish brown, later orange in color. Four stamens 3 to 4 millimeters long are formed per flower . The ovary is conical, hairy and quadruple. The stylus is thread-like, the stigma forked.
The fruits are about 2.5 centimeters long, broadly egg-shaped, flattened capsules . Each fruit contains a large, flattened seed with no seed coat.
Distribution and ecology
The distribution area of the species extends along the coasts of South India via Vietnam , Thailand , Malaysia and Indonesia to the Philippines , New Guinea and Eastern Australia . In New Guinea they can be found at altitudes of up to 50 meters. It usually grows on brackish silt on coasts and on marshland in humid, tropical and subtropical areas with rainfall of 10 to 45 millimeters and average temperatures of 20 to 26 ° C.
Systematics and research history
Avicennia officinalis is a species from the genus Avicennia . The species is the species type of the genus Avicennia , but the name was often used for other Avicennia species, for example Avicennia marina and Avicennia officinalis was described as Avicennia tomentosa . In the first edition of Species Plantarum, Carl von Linné described two species, the Asian species Avicennia officinalis and the American species Avicennia germinans . Later he mistakenly combined both species as Avicennia officinalis .
use
The wood is used to make boats, huts and moorings, but also for furniture. The root and bark can be used for coloring .
proof
literature
- PB Tomlinson: The Botany of Mangroves . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986, ISBN 0-521-46675-X , pp. 199, 200 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Avicennia officinalis. In: NewCROP. Purdue University , accessed March 13, 2011 .
- ↑ a b Tomlinson: The Botany of Mangroves , p. 199.
- ^ Tomlinson: The Botany of Mangroves , p. 200.
