Hi,
I found this mangrove species growing along the bank but could not identify it. The mangrove forest is located on the eastern coast of India in Andhra Pradesh. I have seen this species only in three sites along the bank of a creek. Salinity ranges between 3 to 15 throughout the year in the creek.
It usually has this luxuriant growth with pointy elongated leaves. But I have not recorded its flowering or fruiting in the four years that I worked in the mangrove forest. Can anybody please help in identifying it, at least till the genus level? Sorry for the picture quality, I could not get a good close-up of it.
Regards.
Paromita Ray,
Please use the attached identification manual to identify this mangrove plant species.
Good luck!
Upload an image that has reproductive structure, and another that you can see the leaves and roots better
@Arvind Singh and @Asiel Cabrera Guerrero, thank you very much for your responses. As I mentioned in the text that I have not been able to see the pant in flowering or fruiting till now. And I have been working in the study area for 3 years now. But I understand that its really difficult without them.
@Arvind Singh, many thanks for the identification key.
Dear Paromita Ray,
Please have a look at this useful ResearchGate link.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258872201_Field_Identification_Guide_for_Indian_Mangroves
Good luck!
Do you know if this plant is growing as a tree? Or if the leaf arrangement is opposite or alternate? @Arvind Singh, I don't believe Derris trifoliata grows as a tree, but only as a vine or woody climbing plant.
@ Zoe Shribman
How you are so sure that posted plant is a tree? I know it very well that Derris trifoliata does not grows as tree, but it grows as a climbing shrub. Since picture quality of the plant is poor and it is devoid of reproductive structures, therefore nobody can exactly establish the identity of the plant on ResearchGate. On the basis of literature consultation on mangrove plants of eastern coast of Andhra Pradesh, India, I have just expressed possibility that the plant could be Derris trifoliata.
@ Zoe Shribman
Please have a look at this link
http://taieol.tw/pages/41959
@ Zoe Shribman
Please have a look at this link also.
http://nc.biodiv.tw/bbs/showthread.php?t=44501
@Arvind Singh: I was just asking a clarifying question, I don't doubt your expertise! :) Thank you for sharing those great photos of Derris!
@Paromita Ray:
Looking through this guide, https://malaysia.wetlands.org/publications/mangrove-guidebook-for-malaysia/ with just the picture of your species provided, could it perhaps be Brownlowia tersa? According to IUCN (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/178835/0) it appears that perhaps it grows in the region you are in, although I've never travelled there to have seen it myself. It is however, more of a rare species to find as I understand.
@Paromita Ray
Please follow the below given ResearchGate link and request the authors to confirm the suggestion forwarded by Miss Zoe Shribman.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303889237_The_rediscovery_of_Brownlowia_tersa_L_Kosterm_Malvaceae_from_the_Andaman_Islands_India_-_a_Near_Threatened_mangrove_species
Here in Thailand, it grows as a dense shrub that can reach 2-3m, it grows along creek banks, in firm muddy soil, and it thrives with low salinities or in freshwater canals. If you can find fruit and flowers that will of course help identify it!
(Information translated from local guidebook in Thai)
Thank you so much Zoe and Mr. Arvind for your responses and the effort in sorting this out. Your suggestions are really helpful. I had taken some close up pics of the plant and its leaf pattern last year and will soon check it with the characters of B. tersa.
Hi....it is Brownlowia tersa, one of the Near Threatened mangrove species
Brownlowia tersa. Common at River sides. Very common occurrence at Bhitarkanika National Park, Odisha
Article Inventorying, Mapping and Monitoring of Mangroves towards Su...
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