- Florida Red Mangrove on Sanibel Island - Linda C. Ashar, Copyright 2008
Within the many bays, inlets and island nooks and crannies of the Florida coastline and keys, cluster family stands of an unusual tree of tortuous, reaching trunks, sprawling aerial root systems, thick shiny leaves and delicate fragrant blossoms. Dark, murky waters eddy beneath the shade of this tree, teeming with marine and plant life.
This strange tree breathes in the humid-dense sweet tropical air, bathes in the tide, embraces the rains that come softly in the night and thwarts the winds of hurricanes and tropical storms that scream down and across the coastal waters. Unalarmed by push and pull of wind and water, equally at home in salt and fresh water, the tree laces its shallow root systems into and throughout the coastal soil that silts beneath tidal currents.
Holding fast against the shore, the tree's sturdy twisting trunks shelter exotic birds in lush foliage and host myriad small crabs and other tiny creatures along their salty bark. Wild animals of land and water, fish and fowl of Florida's endangered wilderness, find sanctuary within and below these tall, tenacious, crooked and eerily beautiful trees.
The Florida Mangroves
This mysterious, captivating, resilient, leafy creature is the mangrove, a tropical coastal tree indigenous to Florida and many other exotic areas of the world. Its name derives from the Portuguese word mangue, meaning "tree," and the English word grove, meaning a "grouping of trees." In turn, a grouping or forest of mangroves, which join in harmony as a mangrove swamp, is called a mangal.
Three types of mangrove tree flourish in Florida: red, white and black. It is the red mangrove that predominates along Florida's outer coastal waters. The white and black mangroves thrive in further inland swamps.
The greatest number of Florida mangroves proliferate in the Ten Thousand Islands and Everglades. The mangrove swamp photographs accompanying this article were taken on Sanibel Island in the J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.
Fisheries, Birds and Wildlife Sheltered in the Mangrove Wetlands
In the coastal waters, fresh water from inland streams and rainwater meets the saltwater of the sea to form a unique biogeographic mix called an estuary. The mangrove is a saltwater tree that thrives in this brackish stew.
This tree manages well from fresh to saltwater levels, facilitating a resulting estuarine habitat that is a wildlife and marine haven. This safe harbor for the animal, fish and plant life flourishing in the shelter of the mangrove tree becomes a self-sustaining dynamic ecosystem. A myriad of life cycles mutually supporting their own delicate balance are all made possible by the sprawling, whispering mangroves.
The University of Florida reports that the Florida mangrove ecosystems shelter a wide diversity of wildlife, including 220 fish species, 181 bird species and 24 reptile and amphibian species.
Bird watcher sightings in the Florida mangroves may include such finds as wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans, egrets, white herons, warblers, mangrove cuckoos and black whiskered vireos. Below, the dark waters can conceal alligators and crocodiles. Wild animals include bears, wildcats and pumas.
Oysters and crabs attach to the mangrove tree’s bark and roots, filtering the swamp water, an important ecofunction.
The mangrove root system and swamp waters perpetuate an ideal fish hatchery for species that will mature and move elsewhere, as well as a primary habitat for adult marine species such as sailfin molly, mosquito fish, marsh killifish, bonefish, tarpon, mullet, snook, sheepshead and shrimp.
The Mangrove Tree Is a Sentinel Against Coastal Damage by Hurricanes and Erosion
In addition to the natural shelter, hideaways and nurturing surfaces it provides for diverse marine, plant and animal life, the mangrove stands as a protector against the elements that would erode the coastal soils and wash away estuarine ecosystems.
The mangrove’s roots hold the watery coastline steady against tidal wash and stronger currents of storms and wind. The tree withstands better than most the onslaught of the periodic hurricanes that slam the Florida coast, though it is not immune to them. Hurricanes have damaged mangrove stands just as they have other natural and man-made elements.
What the mangrove does for its coastal home is bear the brunt of the hurricane force. As a sturdy buffer against these tropical assaults, the mangrove stands protect the coast from erosion and deadly depletion of the flora and fauna that live within their brackish waters.
Florida Law Protects the Mangrove Tree
At one time the mangrove’s environmental significance was misunderstood and many mangals fell to drainage for commercial development. Because of its ecological importance, it is now illegal to cut down a mangrove tree on the Florida coast.
Florida's Everglades National Park, designated both a Wetland of International Importance and International Biosphere Reserve, protects the largest mangrove forest in North America and is said to be the largest continuous mangrove system in the world.
Sources:
Florida Areas Inventory and Florida Department of Natural Resources, Guide to Natural Communities of Florida, February, 1990, pp. 69-72. Accessed March 24, 2010 at fnai.org.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection, “612 Mangrove Swamps.” Accessed March 25, 2010 at publicfiles.dep.state.fl.us.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Southwest District, “Facts About Mangroves in Florida,” 2010. Accessed March 23, 2010 at dep.state.fl.us.
Hogarth, Peter J., The Biology of Mangroves. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1999.
J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island, South Florida.
Robin, Ann K., South Florida's Mangrove-bordered Estuaries, Their Role in Sport and Commercial Fish Production (Sea Grant Information Bulletin No. 4). Miami, FL: University of Miami Sea Grant Program, December 1970.
Shannon Technologies, “Park Vision, Everglades National Park,” 2010. Accessed March 25, 2010 at shannontech.com.
University of Florida, “Florida Wetlands, Mangrove Swamps,” July 27, 2009. Accessed March 25, 2010 at wetlandextension.ifas.ufl.edu.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Multi-Species Recovery Plan for South Florida, “Mangroves.” Accessed March 25, 2010 at fws.gov.
Linda Ashar - Linda C. Ashar is a lawyer, educator, horse breeder, freelance writer, and artist. Her 25-year law practice in Avon, Ohio, focuses on ...
