| Sitemap List of birds on this site List of plants on this site List of animals on this site My homepage |
|
Bakau
Kurap (Malay)
For more about Rhizophora in general. |
|
||||||||||
More
tolerant of sandy and firmer ground than other Rhizophoras,
R. mucronata grows well in soft mud too and is believed to
be among the few that can survive complete daily inundation.
This
species of Rhizophora is the most widespread. Their Malay
name refers to their fruit, kurap means "warty".
Uses
as food: Fruits may be eaten, after scraping off the skin and
boiling with wood ashes, according to some sceptical accounts. The Wealth
of India describes the fruit as sweet and edible, and indicates that the
juice is made into a light wine. Young shoots are cooked and eaten as a
vegetable. But
honey collected from the flowers is said to be poisonous.Other uses: The timber is heavy, difficult to saw and not durable unless it is dried for a long time. But it is used for construction, to make fish traps, house frames, pilings and poles.
Rhizophora is the preferred mangrove wood for firewood and to make charcoal. It produces an even heat and is easy to split for firewood. It is also chipped and used in commercial paper and rayon production in Indonesia and East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak). Tannins and dyes are extracted from the bark; a black to chestnut dye is obtained from the leaves. Unlike some other mangrove trees, new growths from Rhizophora trees only emerge from branch tips and not the trunk. So they can be killed by excessive collection of branches for firewood or other uses. They are planted along coastal fish ponds to stabilise the banks.
Traditional medicinal uses: It is used as an astringent and to treat angina, haemorrhaging (extracts from the seedlings in Indochina); diarrhoea (China, Japan): diabetes, dysentery, hematuria. A poultice of the leaves are used to relief armoured fish stings. Old leaves and roots are used during childbirth (Malay). Bark is used to treat blood in the urine (Burma).
Role in the habitat: See mangrove trees.
LINKS
- Purdue University, Center for New Crops and Plants Products: description, distribution, ecology, uses (medicinal, food, and others)
- Plants of Guam by Philip H. Moore and Patrick D. McMakin on the University of Guam website: brief fact sheet on Rhizophora mucronata with photo.
- Direct uses of mangrove flora in Southeast Asia on the Wetlands International-Asia Pacific website: uses.
- Mangrove Conservation and Development: fact sheet on Rhizophora mucronata with lots of photos.
- The uses of mangroves by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS): uses.
| 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. 130-131: description, habit, photo.
- Michael Mastaller, "Mangroves: The Forgotten Forest Between Land and Sea", Tropical Press, 1997 (p. 28-30: about the roots; p. 34-35: about how seedlings disperse and sprout; p. 97: medicinal uses).