CONTENTS
Flora index
Fauna index
guide to the mangroves of singapore
Flowering plants
Peter K L Ng and N Sivasothi (editors)
 
Bakau putih
Bruguiera cylindrica
Family Rhizophoraceae

Southeast Asia to Australia. Locally, in various sites. Tree up to 20 m tall with buttresses and kneed pneumatophores; bark grey, smooth; leaves opposite, blades light green, thin, elliptic; stipules pale yellow or greenish.
wide shot of whole tree
Sapling

close-up of flowers
Flowers


Fruiting branch


Close up of sepals
close up of knee roots
Roots showing kneed
pneumatophores (loops
protruding out of the sand)

wide shot of well-developed knee roots
Kneed roots of
Bruguiera cylindrica

flowering branches
Bruguiera parviflora branch (left)
differs in being more delicate
and flowers are smaller
and more elongated than
Bruguiera cylindrica
 Flowers 2-5 per leaf angle, sepals light green and sticking out at right angles to the fruit; seed germinates in fruit, their hypocotyl up to 15 cm long, like a green or purplish cigarette and often slighly curved.

Grows on stiff clay behind Avicennia at the seaface; can grow on newly formed soils unsuitable to other mangroves, leaving better soils to the other species.
Used as firewood and timber. Young radicles may be eaten as a vegetable or preserve after boiling. Bark produces a peculiar odour which frightens away fish. Probably the most common mangrove tree in Singapore.

See also
Tumu Bruguiera gymnorhiza
Lenggadai Bruguiera praviflora
Ultrafiltration of salt, vivipary and knee roots as adaptations to the mangroves.
What is mangrove?
Introduction

The Ecosystem
Abiotic
Biotic

Value
Intro
Products
Indirect uses
Potential uses

About Mangroves
in Singapore
History
Mangroves to visit
Conservation
 
From "A Guide to Mangroves of Singapore", Peter K. L. Ng and N. Sivasothi (editors)
Volume 1: The Ecosystem and Plant Diversity and Volume 2: Animal Diversity
Authors: Kelvin K. P. Lim, Dennis H. Murphy, T. Morgany, N. Sivasothi, Peter K. L. Ng,
B. C. Soong, Hugh T. W. Tan, K. S. Tan & T. K. Tan
BP Guide to Nature Series published by the Singapore Science Centre, sponsored by British Petroleum
© 2001 Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, The National University of Singapore & The Singapore Science Centre