FAUNA AND FLORA O F MANGROVE SWAMPS
77
The next mention of mangroves comes from the reports of the
sixteenth-century explorers. Aviedo first described the American
mangroves in 1526, but not till 1678 do we find accounts of Indian
Ocean mangroves in van Rheede’s “ Hortus malabaricus ”. John Ray
(1693) gives a sound account drawn from various travellers’ tales, and
from then on references become more common so that by the middle
of the eighteenth century it was possible for Linnd to give modern
names to several species.
Nearchus
described trees of around 14 m (45 ft) tall ; yet, if Bretzl’s account is to
be accepted, and there is no reason to doubt him, no trees of this
height occurred in 1900 anywhere along these shores. Only scrub
mangroves occur too, nowadays, along Red Sea shores. Where have
the tall trees gone?
We know that, for the most part, the Ancients never planted trees,
other than fruit trees ; we know that the Arabs and the Persians also
never planted trees, yet they built ships and houses in which timber
was important. Mangrove timber is still the basis of much Arab
domestic architecture, and is collected from the mangrove forests of
East Africa. The Arabs sail ships which are known in English by the
name of dhow, a word of unknown origin: masts of these dhows are
frequently made from the trunk of a mangrove tree, either of Sonneratia,
of Rhizophora or of Bruguiera-all trees which give a long, clean,
tapering trunk. One is tempted to suggest that the handy occurrence
of mangrove trees on Red Sea shores and along the Persian Gulf provided the timber for the first sea-going ships. But no one tells us how,
or from what wood, these early boats were made.
C. Indo-west- Pacific shores
Mangroves grow only on sheltered shores. Within the tropics many,
if not most, of the shores of the Indo-west-Pacific biogeographic region
are protected by reefs of coral lying along the edge of the continental
shelf. Such reefs, and in certain regions a multiplicity of islands, break
the force of the waves so that considerable lengths of coastline, both
of continents and of large islands, are not subjected to strong wave
action. Other shore lines tend to run parallel to the direction of the
prevailing winds and so they, too, come to be, in fact, sheltered shores
even though on a map they appear to be open to the sea.
South of the tropics, but within the trade wind zones of the Southern
Hemisphere, long stretches of high sand dunes run along the eastern
coasts of Africa, Australia and Madagascar. These dunes are ancient
formations and reach altitudes of 60 m a t Durban Bluff, of 114 m at
All these accounts leave many questions unanswered.
77
The next mention of mangroves comes from the reports of the
sixteenth-century explorers. Aviedo first described the American
mangroves in 1526, but not till 1678 do we find accounts of Indian
Ocean mangroves in van Rheede’s “ Hortus malabaricus ”. John Ray
(1693) gives a sound account drawn from various travellers’ tales, and
from then on references become more common so that by the middle
of the eighteenth century it was possible for Linnd to give modern
names to several species.
Nearchus
described trees of around 14 m (45 ft) tall ; yet, if Bretzl’s account is to
be accepted, and there is no reason to doubt him, no trees of this
height occurred in 1900 anywhere along these shores. Only scrub
mangroves occur too, nowadays, along Red Sea shores. Where have
the tall trees gone?
We know that, for the most part, the Ancients never planted trees,
other than fruit trees ; we know that the Arabs and the Persians also
never planted trees, yet they built ships and houses in which timber
was important. Mangrove timber is still the basis of much Arab
domestic architecture, and is collected from the mangrove forests of
East Africa. The Arabs sail ships which are known in English by the
name of dhow, a word of unknown origin: masts of these dhows are
frequently made from the trunk of a mangrove tree, either of Sonneratia,
of Rhizophora or of Bruguiera-all trees which give a long, clean,
tapering trunk. One is tempted to suggest that the handy occurrence
of mangrove trees on Red Sea shores and along the Persian Gulf provided the timber for the first sea-going ships. But no one tells us how,
or from what wood, these early boats were made.
C. Indo-west- Pacific shores
Mangroves grow only on sheltered shores. Within the tropics many,
if not most, of the shores of the Indo-west-Pacific biogeographic region
are protected by reefs of coral lying along the edge of the continental
shelf. Such reefs, and in certain regions a multiplicity of islands, break
the force of the waves so that considerable lengths of coastline, both
of continents and of large islands, are not subjected to strong wave
action. Other shore lines tend to run parallel to the direction of the
prevailing winds and so they, too, come to be, in fact, sheltered shores
even though on a map they appear to be open to the sea.
South of the tropics, but within the trade wind zones of the Southern
Hemisphere, long stretches of high sand dunes run along the eastern
coasts of Africa, Australia and Madagascar. These dunes are ancient
formations and reach altitudes of 60 m a t Durban Bluff, of 114 m at
All these accounts leave many questions unanswered.