mangrove

plural mangroves

1. Any of various tropical and subtropical evergreen shrubs or trees chiefly of the Rhizophoraceae family that have aerial roots and grow in clumps in brackish intertidal coastal areas; (specifically) any of various trees of the genus Rhizophora, especially the red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle).First known use early 17th c.

   The team that found the species living in a mangrove forest also included Thai wildlife YouTuber JoCho Sippawat, who is also an author on the paper published last week.

   2023 September 26, Hafsa Khalil, “Electric blue tarantula species discovered in Thailand”, in CNN

   3 more examples

   The channel by which we went to, and returned from Olinda, was bordered on each side by mangroves, which sprang like a miniature forest out of the greasy mud-banks. The bright green colour of these bushes always reminded me of the rank grass in a churchyard: both are nourished by putrid exhalations; the one speaks of death past, and the other too often of death to come.

   1839, Charles Darwin, chapter XXIII, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 593

   We called […] in and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of an impotent despair.

   1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 204, column 1

   This lush forest, just a few miles from the Guatemalan border, teems with diverse wildlife – from crocodiles and crabs to fish darting through seemingly endless mangroves. […] The Barra de Santiago is bordered on one side by mangroves with the ocean on the other; the project will be the first to build houses on the mangrove side.

   2024 September 5, Camilo Freedman, “The vanishing mangroves of El Salvador: ‘All our efforts may only slow the destruction’”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Mar 2025

   Synonyms: mangle

2. broadlyA forest of such shrubs or trees.

   Synonyms: mangle

3. broadlyPreceded by a descriptive word: any of various shrubs or trees of genera other than Rhizophora which resemble plants of this genus in appearance and habitat.

   Synonyms: mangle

4. alsoattributivebroadlybiologySynonym of mangal (“a tropical and subtropical coastal intertidal swampland ecosystem characterized by mangroves (sense 1) or similar shrubs and trees”).

   1 more example

   There has been some investigation into the potential of seaweeds as a carbon store, and although more is needed, one study says that seaweed habitats are believed to be the most productive of all coastal vegetated ecosystems, and suggested that the world's seaweed sequesters as much carbon as all the planet’s seagrass meadows, saltmarshes and mangroves combined.

   2023 September 27, Vincent Doumeizel, “Opinion: Seaweed is Nutritious, Not Slimy. Eating It could Save the World.”, in CNN, archived from the original on 13 May 2025

   Synonyms: mangal