Narrative

Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) is found along the Florida coast in much of the state. Although this species can become very tall, it is generally limited to 15 or so feet. The leaves are about 3-5 inches long. The flowers can be white to pale yellow. Mangrove trees tend to grow in tidal areas where the water changes from several feet deep to none at all. Their roots frequently are exposed at low tide, and at high tide provide hiding places for various marine creatures.

The white color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is locally common.

This lifeform is found in Florida, USA. This lifeform is found widely in the New World tropics.

Rhizophora genus is a tropical genus with about eight species. The Rhizophora genus is represented in North America by a single species.

Mangrove Family (Rhizophoraceae) is a small family of about seventy species usually found in tidal areas of the tropical world. The family has little economic importance, but mangroves seem to play a part in the formation of keys and islands and protection against erosion. There are four species placed in three genera that are growing in greater North America.

Myrtiflorae Order is an assemblage of over twenty different families.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.