Native Plant Database

Avicennia germinans (L.) L.

Black mangrove

Verbenaceae (Verbena Family)

Synonyms: Avicennia nitida, Bontia germinans

USDA Symbol: avge

USDA Native Status: Native to U.S.

Evergreen shrub or, in tropical regions, a tree with rounded crown of spreading branches. This tropical shrub bears thick, elliptic, evergreen leaves and small, white flowers with dark-spotted corollas. The 1 1/2-2 1/2 in. long leaves are dark-green above, pale-gray hairy beneath. Black mangrove can become tree-like and reach a height of 50 ft., but it is usually much shorter. The bark is dark gray and smooth at first, becoming scaly on larger trunks. Many upright, unbranched roots are exposed. Black Mangrove is the hardiest of the four species forming the mangrove swamp forests of southern Florida. It penetrates farthest inland into brackish water of rivers and farthest north along the Gulf Coast, where it becomes smaller and shrubby and is killed in cold winters. New seedlings, however, invade from seeds transported by currents and persist a few years. An important honey plant, it yields clear whitish honey of high quality. The other three native mangroves are tropical trees confined mostly to southern Florida but do extend northward along the coast to the central part of that state.

This species is a member of the verbena family (family Verbenaceae), which includes about 75 genera and 3,000 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees, mostly of tropical and warm temperate regions. Among them, teak is a highly prized furniture wood, and Vervain, Lantana, Lippia or Frog Fruit, and Chase Tree or Vitex are grown as ornamentals.

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