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In Singapore: Crabapple Mangrove, Mangrove Apple, Firefly Mangrove, Berembang (Native to Singapore, Critically Endangered)
Sonneratia caseolaris, the mangrove apple, is a tree that grows in tropical tidal mudflats, reaching up to 20 m tall. The key to growing it is saline or brackish tidal mud, since it is a true mangrove and not a garden plant.
Sonneratia caseolaris, commonly known as mangrove apple, or pagatpat is a species of plant in the family Lythraceae. The fruit is noted for its outward similarity to the persimmon fruit.
This tree is a type of mangrove growing up to 20 m in height and with a trunk reaching a maximum diameter of 50 cm. It is present in tropical tidal mud flats from Africa to Indonesia, southwards down to northeast Australia and New Caledonia and northwards up to Hainan Island in China and the Philippines. It has pneumatophores or "knees" up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height and conical in form
The leaves and the fruit are edible and appreciated as food in certain areas, such as Maldives. In Sri Lanka, where the fruit is known as kirala gédi (කිරල ගෙඩි) in Sinhala or Kārk koṭṭaikaḷ (கார்க் கொட்டைகள்) in Tamil, the pulp of the fruit is mixed with coconut milk extract and made into a milk shake. Many tourist resorts situated in the South of Sri Lanka where the trees grow abundantly alongside rivers, offer fresh fruit drinks made from the fruit.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sonneratia caseolaris 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.
