mangrove

Noun

mangrove (plural mangroves)

1. Any of various tropical and subtropical evergreen shrubs or trees chiefly of the Rhizophoraceae family that have aerial roots and grow in clumps in brackish intertidal coastal areas; (specifically) any of various trees of the genus Rhizophora, especially the red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle).
   • The channel by which we went to, and returned from Olinda, was bordered on each side by mangroves, which sprang like a miniature forest out of the greasy mud-banks. The bright green colour of these bushes always reminded me of the rank grass in a churchyard: both are nourished by putrid...1839, Charles Darwin, chapter XXIII, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […]...
   • We called […] in and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of an impotent despair.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 204...

   Synonyms:

   mangle

2. (broadly) A forest of such shrubs or trees.

   Synonyms:

   mangle

3. (broadly) Preceded by a descriptive word: any of various shrubs or trees of genera other than Rhizophora which resemble plants of this genus in appearance and habitat.

   Synonyms:

   mangle

4. (also, attributive, broadly) Synonym of mangal (“a tropical and subtropical coastal intertidal swampland ecosystem characterized by mangroves (sense 1) or similar shrubs and trees”).
   • There has been some investigation into the potential of seaweeds as a carbon store, and although more is needed, one study says that seaweed habitats are believed to be the most productive of all coastal vegetated ecosystems, and suggested that the world's seaweed sequesters as much carbon as all...2023 September 27, Vincent Doumeizel, “Opinion: Seaweed is Nutritious, Not Slimy. Eating It could Save the World.”, in CNN, archived from the original on 13 May 2025

   Synonyms:

   mangal