Ceriops tagal C.B.Rob.

Shrub or small tree up to 6(15) m high; branches terete or slightly compressed towards the extremities, smooth, with elliptic to ± deltate or subcircular scars of the petioles of the fallen leaves and annular scars of the fallen stipules; bark brown to grey. Leaf-lamina usually 4-9 x 2-5 cm, elliptic to obovate; apex rounded to retuse; base narrowed into the petiole; midrib rather prominent below; petiole usually 1-3 cm long; stipules 1-2 cm long, lanceolate, plicate-involute initially, very acute at the apex and truncate at the base. Inflorescences (3)4-8-flowered; principal peduncle up to 1.5 cm long, very shortly or obsoletely 2-3-forked at the apex. Flowers 5-merous, subsessile; bracts and bracteoles c. 2 mm long, ± deltate or ovate-circular, obtuse or subrounded at the apex; flower-buds c. 5 x 4 mm, ellipsoid-ovoid, subpentagonal, glabrous. Calyx reddish-brown; calyx-tube c. 2.5 mm long; calyx-lobes c. 5 mm long, triangular or ovate-triangular, acute at apex, fleshy, abaxial surface glossy, adaxial surface paler and mat, with a longitudinal thickened ridge. Petals 3.5 x 2 mm, oblong or obovate-oblong, truncate and bearing 3 distinct very short glandular appendages at the apex, shortly cohering a little below the middle by the uncinate-hairy margins, the base slightly narrower than the apex, white or cream. Disk composed of 5, ± separate, 2-lobed elements. Stamens 10; filaments 3-4 mm long, ± filiform, narrowed and bent at the apex and slightly swollen at the base; anthers 0.5-0.7 mm long, ovoid-sagittate, acute at the apex, ochraceous. Ovary c. 3 mm long, ovoid, pale green; style c. 1.5 mm long, thickened at the base and minutely 3-lobed at the apex. Hypocotyl extended up to 26 cm from the fruit while on the tree, sharply longitudinally ridged, ± swollen subdistally.

On well drained soils, within the reach of occasional tides in the inner mangrove. Fishermen exploit it so much in Malaya that well grown trees are rare, according to Burkill. On the whole it is much more common than C. decandra. It is very interesting that one can break a seedling into halves and regeneration of a new plant occurs from either half, according to Cubitt.It sometimes occurs as undergrowth in Rhizophora or Bruguiera mangrove forest, but in other places occurs in thin-stemmed, very dense, gregarious monospecific stands on well-drained soils, cf. Heyne Nutt. Pl. 1927 1167 .In Siam recorded with aerial roots from the branches and according to Becking also in Indonesia sometimes with aerial roots.

Uses. In Malaya the bent branches are often used as knees for boats and the trunks for housebuilding. Watson regards it as the most durable of all the mangroves. It also makes an excellent fire-wood. In Indonesia it is used for pit-props (coal mines of P. Laut) and various other purposes. The heart-wood is yellow to orange without any sharp distinction against the sap-wood.The Malays use the bark for tanning fishing lines, nets, and sails. It is used as dye in the batik industry for colouring red, or black in combination with indigo, as is done in Pattani and Kelantan, for cotton and matting, cf. Burkill Dict. 1935 517 .The tannin is not suitable for medicinal use, though occasionally used; a fragment of the bark or the old calyx is placed in the betel-quid as an astringent.

Seedlings can be split in half and both halves will grow.