tumu (bruguiera gymnorhiza): info fact sheet, photos

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Tumu (Malay)
Bruguiera gymnorhiza
Burma/Oriental/Large-leaved Orange Mangrove

Tumu is the most widely distributed of the Rhizophoreae family. It grows best on dry, well aerated soil with some freshwater; conditions found towards the back mangrove. But in Singapore, also grows in mud.

Elsewhere, it is among the tallest mangroves reaching up to 36m. But in Singapore, it rarely exceeds 15m. It is also among the longest lived mangroves.

The kneed pneumatophores comprise a sponge-like system of air chambers and tubes which acts as an air reservoir when the roots are submerged. The pneumatophores are covered with many lenticels which allow air but not water to enter the root.

Uses as food: Leaves and peeled seedlings are soaked, boiled and eaten. Seedlings are the staple of some in Papua New Guinea, but eaten only in times of famine in Moluccas. Seedlings may be added to betel nut as an astringent. Seedlings are also made into a sweetmeat: they are sliced, soaked to leach out the tannins, then ground into a paste. The bark may be used to flavour fish.

Other uses: The timber is heavy and tough, but has straight fibres and a fine grain.

Mangrove and wetland wildlife at
Sungei Buloh Nature Park

Main features: Grows 8-30m tall. Bark: Brown, almost black. Roots: Knee roots (45cm tall) with buttress roots. Leaves: Leathery, large (10-20cm), in rosettes at the ends of branches. Flowers: Large sepals that are red in the sun and yellowish in the shade. The real flower petals are less colourful. Blooms throughout the year.



Fruits: The seed germinates in the fruit forming a cigar-shaped seedling 10-20cm long. The seedling grows straight and has a blunt narrow tip. Similar trees: B. cylindrica which has green/yellow sepals that are at right angles from the seedling; seedling grows slightly curved; flowers are tiny, yellow. Status in Singapore: Rare. World distribution: Tropical South and East Africa, through the Indian Ocean coasts, Southeast Asia, Australia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Introduced to Hawaii. Classification: Family Rhizophoraceae. World 6 species.

This makes it hard to work with, but valuable as fishing stakes, pilings, telephone poles, railway sleepers, heavy pillars and beams, and other construction. It is commercially planted in Indonesia, Sabah and Sarawak to produce wood chips that is turned into paper pulp or to produce rayon fabric. It is also favoured as firewood and for conversion into charcoal as it produces the most heat among mangrove woods. Unlike some mangroves, however, Bruguiera does not regenerate easily from branch cutting as new growth appears only from branch tips and not the trunk. Thus, careless harvesting of branches can damage or kill the tree.

The tree was introduced to the Hawaiian islands, where the colourful red flower is now incorporated into their leis (flower garlands). In the Marshall Islands, the bark is used to make rope for fishing nets. The seedlings are used to produce a dye that does not bleed in water. The seedlings are peeled, chopped up, boiled and the fabric immersed in the soup, then dried in the shade. The resulting colour is a red-brown, and repeated dyeing gives black. The dye also strengthened fishing nets, grass skirts and other fibres. In Southeast Asia, the tree is one of the traditional dyes used in batik-making: it produces an orange-red colour.

A scent is extracted from the knee roots, and adhesive from the bark.

Traditional medicinal uses: The bark is astringent and used to treat malaria (Cambodia), cure fish poisoning (Marshall Islands), treat diarrhoea and fever (Indonesia). Elsewhere the fruit is used to treat eye problems, and scrapped skin of the fruit to stop bleeding. The fruit may also be chewed as a betel nut substitute. The leaves are used to control blood pressure (India).

Role in the habitat: See mangrove trees.

LINKS

Field Guide to the Mangroves of Queensland: Fabulous page with diagrams, location and distribution map, flowering and fruiting seasons
Purdue University, Center for New Crops and Plants Products: description, distribution, ecology, uses (medicinal, food, and others)
Hawaii Alien Plant Studies: short fact sheet, photos.
Traditional utilization of Mangroves in the Marshall Islands by Dirk H.R. Spennemann: discussion of possibility that B. gymnorrhiza was introduced by islanders. Also fact sheet on their traditional uses.
Plants of Guam by Philip H. Moore and Patrick D. McMakin on the University of Guam website: brief fact sheet on Bruguiera gymnorrhiza with photo.
Direct uses of mangrove flora in Southeast Asia on the Wetlands International-Asia Pacific website: traditional uses.
ISME (International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems): fact sheet, photo.
The uses of mangroves by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS): uses as food.

REFERENCES

To buy these references & others, visit
Nature's Niche

Peter K L Ng and N Sivasothi, "A Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore I: The Ecosystem and Plant Diversity", Singapore Science Centre, 1999 (p. 104-105: description, habit, photo).
Michael Mastaller, "Mangroves: The Forgotten Forest Between Land and Sea", Tropical Press, 1997 (p. 32: about the functions of their pneumatophores; p. 97 and 102: uses).

By Ria Tan, 2001