Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 110 (1753).

Derivation: After the celebrated Perso-Arabian physician Ibn Sina, 980-1037, whose name was Latinised as Avicenna; his medical works having a great repute in Europe during and after the middle ages.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Glabrous or canescent shrubs or trees being a mangrove in the intertidal zone, with wide-creeping shallow roots; leaves undivided, coriaceous or subcoriaceous, glabrous on both surfaces and quite shiny or densely covered with scales beneath.

Cymes pedunculate in the upper axils or in terminal usually umbellate or paniculate head-like or spiciform inflorescence; flowers opposite, bracteate; bracts and bracteoles convex; calyx deeply 5-partite, coriaceous, not accrescent, with segments (lobes) imbricate, usually rounded or obtuse at the apex; corolla campanulate or campanulate-rotate, varying from white or whitish to yellow or orange; its tube short and broad; limb of 4 nearly equal spreading lobes or the upper one rather larger; stamens with the anthers slightly protruding; filaments usually short, filiform; ovary 1-celled or imperfectly 2- or 4-celled, with 2 or 1 ovule in each imperfectly formed cell; ovules collaterally suspended from a central axis which has 4 angles or 4 wings between the ovules, imperfectly dividing the ovary into 4 cells; style 2-lobed.

Fruit obliquely ovoid, compressed, with pericarp mostly opening in 2 valves; seed erect, without integument; embryo naked, with 2 very large cotyledons; radicle inferior, hairy; plumule prominent, often commencing to germinate before the fruit falls as in Rhizophora and other mangroves.

Distribution:  About 12 species, widely distributed over the warmer maritime regions of the New and the Old World. It is one of the chief constituents of almost all coastal mangrove forests and lagoons.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available