Xylocarpus granatum K.D.Koenig

Habit: Small to a medium-sized evergreen tree, growing up to 12 m tall.

Roots: Well developed buttresses and superficial roots extend for long distances to each side of the trunk.

Trunk & bark: Trunk surface smooth, pale, blotched greenish or yellowish, bark peeling in patches, base often enlarged, with well-developed buttresses continued outward as narrow undulating ribbon-like extensions of the surface root system.

Leaves: Leaves compound, alternate, paripinnate, leaflets 1-4 pairs, petiole 6 cm long, opposite, obovate, apex obtuse or round, base cuneate or subacute, 6-10 x 3.5 cm, entire, puberulous, glossy above.

Inflorescences or flowers: Inflorescence axillary short panicle.Flowers small, white with a reddish gland within, regular, bisexual; calyx 4 lobed, short; petals 4, free, spreading, contorted; stamens 8; ovary 4-celled, style short, stigma thick.

Fruits: Pendulous large, spherical, heavy woody capsule, up to 30-40cm in diameter. The fruit shatters on impact after its fall from the tree releasing several seeds.

Seeds /seedling:10-15 big, pyramidal seeds.

Common species of mangrove with a very wide range, it grows in the higher intertidal zone, usually found in estuaries and often associated with Nypa sp. and / or Sonneratia sp. This species is slow growing. Pollination by bees and insects.

It is a common species of mangrove, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".

Wood termite resistant is used for boat building, furniture and as fuel; bark used for tanning. Root used as a remedy against cholera and dysentery, seed oil is used to treat dysentery, diarrhea and other intestinal disorders, used as febrifuge and for malaria, also used for illumination and grooming hairs; seedpaste is used to cure breast tumor; fruit pulp is applied to skin rashes. Seeds are eaten by baboons.