Avicennia marina(Forssk.) Vierh.

Gray Mangrovegray mangrove

WFO wfo-0000303022 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Avicennia marina, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. a Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-13 / obs. 205976667

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 58 botanical countries

Regions where Avicennia marina is native: Aldabra, Cape Provinces, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mozambique Channel Is., Seychelles, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, China Southeast, Gulf States, Hainan, Iran, Nansei-shoto, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Taiwan, Yemen, Andaman Is., Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Christmas I., Cocos (Keeling) Is., India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, New South Wales, New Zealand North, Norfolk Is., Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu Cape ProvincesDjiboutiEgyptEritreaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMozambiqueSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaChina SoutheastGulf StatesHainanIranOmanSaudi ArabiaSinaiTaiwanYemenBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamNew South WalesNew Zealand NorthNorthern TerritoryQueenslandSouth AustraliaVictoriaWestern AustraliaNew Caledonia AldabraComorosMozambique Channel Is.SeychellesNansei-shotoAndaman Is.Christmas I.Nicobar Is.Norfolk Is.Vanuatu
Native distribution of Avicennia marina, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Christmas I. XMS
Cocos (Keeling) Is. CKI
India IND
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Aldabra ALD AFRICA
Cape Provinces CPP
Comoros COM
Djibouti DJI
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Mozambique Channel Is. MCI
Seychelles SEY
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
China Southeast CHS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Gulf States GST
Hainan CHH
Iran IRN
Nansei-shoto NNS
Oman OMA
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Taiwan TAI
Yemen YEM
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
New Zealand North NZN
Norfolk Is. NFK
Northern Territory NTA
Queensland QLD
South Australia SOA
Victoria VIC
Western Australia WAU
New Caledonia NWC PACIFIC
Vanuatu VAN

Not drawn on the map: Socotra, Cocos (Keeling) Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 327 in flower of 1,562 examined

Proportion of examined Avicennia marina in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 31 139 22% 16% to 30%
Feb 76 149 51% 43% to 59%
Mar 61 137 45% 36% to 53%
Apr 35 105 33% 25% to 43%
May 30 118 25% 18% to 34%
Jun 20 159 13% 8% to 19%
Jul 8 123 7% 3% to 12%
Aug 2 92 2% 1% to 8%
Sep 2 131 2% 0% to 5%
Oct 8 125 6% 3% to 12%
Nov 32 157 20% 15% to 27%
Dec 22 127 17% 12% to 25%

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Avicennia marina observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 327 of 1,562 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,957 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 8.2 °C 13.3 °C 20.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.5 °C 27.6 °C 34.5 °C
Annual rainfall 230 mm 1,186 mm 2,007 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 4 mm 126 mm 241 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,957 research-grade observations of Avicennia marina that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 22 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Avicennia eucalyptifolia (Valeton) Zipp. ex Moldenke
  • Avicennia intermedia Griff.
  • Avicennia lanata Ridl.
  • Avicennia lanata Ridl.
  • Avicennia marina f. angustata Moldenke
  • Avicennia marina f. intermedia (Griff.) Moldenke
  • Avicennia marina f. pumila S.Dutta, Chakral & H.Rodrigues
  • Avicennia marina var. acutissima Moldenke
  • Avicennia marina var. anomala Moldenke
  • Avicennia marina var. australasica (Walp.) Moldenke
  • Avicennia marina var. eucalyptifolia (Valeton) N.C.Duke
  • Avicennia marina var. intermedia (Griff.) Bakh.
  • Avicennia marina var. resinifera (G.Forst.) Bakh.
  • Avicennia mindanaensis Elmer
  • Avicennia officinalis var. eucalyptifolia Valeton
  • Avicennia resinifera G.Forst.
  • Avicennia rumphiana Hallier f.
  • Avicennia sphaerocarpa Stapf ex Ridl.
  • Avicennia spicata Kuntze
  • Avicennia tomentosa var. arabica Walp.
  • Avicennia tomentosa var. australasica Walp.
  • Sceura marina Forssk.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.