supported by prop roots. There are many species of mangrove plant. Though mangrove species often look the same or similar, they are often not members of the same family. Many come from different families not even closely related. Different mangrove species are simply plants that came up with the same strategy to survive in a specific environment as plants in the desert have. [Source: Kennedy Warne, National Geographic, February 2007; John P. Wiley, Jr., Smithsonian magazine]

⚫ Mangroves are essentially terrestrial plants that have adapted themselves to living in salt water and mud saturated with hydrogen sulfide (the chemical that produces the rotten egg smell) and salt and is rich in organic matter (up to 90 percent) but deficient in oxygen.

⚫ Mangrove swamps are difficult to explore. The roots form an impregnable tangle of interlocking roots that make boating through them impossible. Sometimes the roots are covered with a variety of sea creatures and can be as colorful as reefs.

⚫ Mangrove swamps are easiest to explore on foot at low tide. But even then making your way through them is no piece of cake They are often covered by barnacles and shells that cut hands and legs. The mud can suck off shoes, stick to the body and swallow people up to their knees. The air is humid, full of mosquitos and the smell of decay and rotten eggs (swamp gas).

⚫ Mangrove forests provide vital habitat for endangered species from tigers and crocodiles to rare humming birds the size of a bee. Kennedy Ware wrote in National Geographic, “Forest mangroves form some of the most productive and biologically complex ecosystems on Earth. Birds roost in the canopy, shellfish attach themselves to the roots, and snakes and crocodiles come to hunt. Mangroves provide nurseries for fish; a food sources for monkeys, deer, tree-climbing crabs... and a nectar source for bats and honeybees."

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Thavel with Me Team's