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plants text index | photo
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| mangroves |
| Chengam
Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea Family Rubiaceae updated Nov 10 Where seen? This pretty bush with waxy green leaves is often seen in undisturbed mangroves. It is also sometimes found on our natural rocky shores. It was previously common in our mangroves and muddy shores and found in Jurong. Elsewhere, it is considered a very common plant among mangrove and sea shore vegetation and its fruits plentiful among flotsam on the shore. Features: A shrub up to 3m, but in Singapore, rarely more than 2m tall. Leaves spoon shaped with smooth, oval-shaped tips, leathery (3-5cm long), shiny green and held upright, arranged opposite one another. Old leaves are yellow then turn shiny pink. Terminal bud and young leaves coated in a varnish-like substance. Flowers in dense clusters about 3-4cm across. Corolla with four white curving lobes and a short pink tube. Nectar is secreted at the base of the tube which is accessible to short-tongued insects. Fruit oblong with 6-8 ridges, first green then white. The outer layer of the fruit is fleshy with a corky inner layer. The fruit separates into two halves when ripe. Each fruit contains 4 or fewer seeds. The fruits float because of the spongy inner layer. Twigs reddish when young. Bark greyish black, ridged and fissured. Sometimes mistaken for Teruntum (Lumnitzera sp.), which has its leaves arranged in a spiral. |
 Can be a tree up to 3m tall! Pulau Ubin, May 09 |
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 Pulau Ubin, May 09 |
 Pulau Ubin, May 09 |
 Pulau Semakau, Mar 09 |
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 Pulau Ubin, Jan 09 |
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 Pulau Ubin, May 09  |
 Pulau Ubin, May 09  |
 Pulau Ubin, May 09 |
 St. John's Island, Jul 09 |
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 St. John's Island, Jul 09  |
 Pulau Ubin, Nov 09  |
 Pulau Ubin, Nov 09 |
 Chek Jawa, Jan 10 |
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Links
References
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Singapore University Press. 222 pp.|
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