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Avicennia germinans
Avicennia germinans is a salt-tolerant mangrove that grows as a shrub or small tree along tropical and subtropical coastlines. It thrives in full sun in sandy or muddy saline soils that tidal seawater reaches, and is not grown as a houseplant.
Avicennia germinans, the black mangrove, is a shrub or small tree growing up to 12 meters (39 feet) in the acanthus family, Acanthaceae. Fossils of the species are known from the Bermont Formation of the Everglades.
The black mangrove grows just above the high tide in coastal areas. It grows in tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, on both the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, and on the Atlantic Coast of tropical Africa, where it thrives on the sandy and muddy shores where seawater reaches. It is common throughout coastal areas of Texas and Florida, and ranges as far north as southern Louisiana and northern Florida in the United States. It is less tolerant of highly saline conditions than certain other species that occur in mangrove ecosystems. It can reach 10–15 m (33–49 ft) in height, although it is a small shrub in cooler regions of its range. The seeds germinate in midsummer, but may be seen all year on the trees. The seeds can remain viable for over a year once released. The leaves often appear whitish from the salt excreted at night and on cloudy days. It is often found in its native range with the red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) and the white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa). White mangroves grow inland from black mangroves, which themselves grow inland from red mangroves.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Avicennia germinans by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
