Nyireh (Xylocarpus)

Nyireh bunga (Xylocarpus granatum)

Flowers are tiny pinkish.

The fruits are large and look like cannon- or bowling-balls! Inside are a few irregularly shaped nuts arranged like a puzzle.
It has buttress roots. Doesn't have pencil like roots.

The timber is used to build boats and make furniture. Bark dyes used on cloths.

Links to more about Nyireh
from the Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore
Nyireh bunga (Xylocarpus granatum)

This is rare
Nyireh batu (Xylocarpus moluccensis)

Perepat (Sonneratia alba)

The breathing roots are large, conical with pointed tips.
The flowers have hard sepals that are green on the outside and pinkish on the inside. The flowers bloom at night. The petals are small and white. What is seen as a big pom-pom are a bunch of many many stamens (that produce pollen). These usually drop off the morning after the bloom, and the mud may be littered with hundreds of these tiny white stamens.
Fruits rounded, with the sepals forming a star-shape behind them.

More about the role of Perepat in durians

Links to more on Perepat
from the Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore
Perepat (Sonneratia alba)

These are rare
Berembang (Sonneratia caseolaris)
Gedabu (Sonneratia ovata)

Bruguiera

All Bruguiera have knee roots.Bakau putih (Bruguiera cylindrica)

Flowers small with pale hard sepals and tiny white petals. The petals usually wither away by mid-day.
Seedlings cylindrical, slender with backward pointing sepals (the thing that looks like a crown)

The wood from the tree is used for fish stakes, pilings, railway sleepers, heavy pillars and beams and other construction. It is also favoured as firewood and for conversion into charcoal as it produces the most heat among mangrove woods. The bark is astringent and used to treat malaria, cure fish poisoning, diarrhoea and fever.

Tumu (Bruguiera gymnorhiza)

Flowers with red hard plasticky sepals (sometimes bright red, sometimes pale pink) and brown furry petals. The petals usually wither away soon after blooming.
Seedling short and fat.

Links to more Bruguiera
on the Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore
Bakau putih (Bruguiera cylindrica)
Tumu (Bruguiera gymnorhiza)

This one is rare
Lenggadai (Bruguiera praviflora)

Bakau (Rhizophora)

All Rhizophora have stilt roots.All Rhizophora have small dots on the underside of the leaf.

Bakau kurap (Rhizophora mucronata) and Bakau (Rhizophora stylosa)
These two species are hard to differentiate in the field.

Flowers more elegant and held on long stalks from the branch.
Seedlings tend to dangle on long stalks from the branch too.

Bakau minyak (Rhizophora apiculata)
Flowers sturdy and stuck close to the branch.
Seedlings long and stuck close to the branch.

Links to more about Bakau
on the Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore
Bakau minyak (Rhizophora apiculata)
Bakau kurap (Rhizophora mucronata)
Bakau (Rhizophora stylosa)

Api-api (Avicennia)

All Api-api species (Avicennia sp.) have pencil-like roots that are equal in diameter more or less throughout, with blunt rounded tips (compared to Sonneratia which has conical roots with sharp tips).

Api-api bulu (Avicennia rumphiana)
Leaves shaped like a Chinese soup-spoon, furry on top and below.
Small flowers in a compact, cross-like formation. It blooms quite often.
Fruits furry, flattened.

Api-api putih (Avicennia alba)
Leaves long and narrow, white underneath.
Small flowers on a more obvious cross-like formation. Blooms often.
Fruit furry, often with a long tip.
Api-api ludat (Avicennia officinalis)
Leaves shaped like a Chinese soup-spoon, shiny on top and below, not furry.
Large flowers on an obvious cross-like formation. Seldom blooms.
Fruits large and furry, flattened.Secretes salt on the leaves. In dry weather you can sometimes see the salt crystals there.


Links to the common Avicennia
from the Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore
Api-api putih (Avicennia alba)
Api-api ludat (Avicennia officinalis)
Api-api bulu (Avicennia rumphiana)

This Avicennia is rare
Api-api jambu (Avicennia marina)

Seeds of the Sea

Tide too high to go out yet?
Raining and have to hide in the shelter on the high shore?
Here's some things you can do on the high shore.

Get everyone to collect seeds and other things they they can find. Give them a time limit or they will take forever. Come back and have a look at what they've found.

Three NAKED facts about plant seeds on the shores

naked fact #1: Shore plant seeds are Real Tough!

The seeds of shore plants often travel a long distance in the sea to find new places to grow.

Let's see some of the special ways they have to survive this long and dangerous journey.

Thoughtful question: Imagine you have to travel miles and miles in the sea. What do you need to survive?

• Food
• Water
• Ability to float
  

Talk about these features for the seeds that you might find.

A: Seedling of the Avicennia mangrove tree, already starting to grow
B: Fruits of the Rhu tree
C: Fruits of the Sea Almond tree
D: Part of the ball of fruits of the Nipah palm, already starting to grow
E: Seed pod of Derris, a climber of the mangroves
H: Part of the seeds found in the round cannon-ball like fruit of the Xylocarpus tree
I: Part of the ball of fruits of the Seashore pandan
J: I have no idea what it is


naked fact #2: Staying with mama until they are teenagers?

Some mangrove seedlings are already half grown when they fall off the mama tree
F: Rhizophoa
G: Bruguiera gymnorrhiza

Unlike other seeds which don't start to grow until they drop off the mama plant.

On some mangrove trees (Rhyzophora, Bruguiera) fruits start to shoot while still on the tree. They look like 'long beans' on the tree. Others like Avicennia are also growing inside the fruit and quickly sprout once they leave the mama tree.


naked fact #3: Being long has its advantages!

Trees have to breathe. Being tall means the seedling gets above water more rapidly and can breathe sooner as the tide falls.

Common misconception: It is not true that the long pointed seedlings fall off the mama tree and stab into the mud to grow. It's not good to grow in the shade of mama, for both mama and baby trees.

Ideally, the seedlings would drop off at high tide and float away lying horizontally. With time, the tip gets water logged and starts to dip downwards. Eventually, when they arrive at a good spot, roots grow from the tip and right the seedling in a vertical position. Leaves then sprout from the top.

Chek Jawa has two beacons!

Three NAKED facts

naked fact #1: Did you know that Chek Jawa has TWO beacons?!

Everyone is familiar with the Chek Jawa Front Beacon which sits in the middle of the water next to the boardwalk and has become an icon of the place.
But opposite the Front Beacon, up on the hill among the coastal forest, is the Chek Jawa Rear Beacon.

What is the point of this arrangement? Ships on the sea visually line up the Front and Rear Beacons to help them navigate the Straits of Johor. See the big red dotted line in the navigation map below.

naked fact #2: The channel that runs south of Chek Jawa towards Loyang is a major shipping lane. (Point out to a big ship if you see one as you say this).

Some of the kinds of big ships seen include
Container ships
Large navy ships (they are stealthy and a gun-metal grey)
Barges carrying sand

Where are they going? Possibly Loyang shipping area or Sembawang Shipyard; or Pasir Gudang in Johor.

naked fact #3: Other stories you can tell about the Front Beacon.

It is also placed there to warn ships that that part is shallow.

Thoughtful question at high tide: Can you tell which part is shallow? Yes, it's the part that brown or lighter in colour. The blue or darker coloured water is deeper.

Thoughtful question at not so high tide: Can you tell by looking at the beacon how high does the tide get?