Indochina mangroves
RESOLVE 319
The Indochina mangroves fringe the tropical coasts of the Gulf of Thailand across Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and into Malaysia, with their largest surviving stands in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam. These are classic tidal mangrove forests shaped by regular flooding with brackish and saltwater, where vegetation sorts itself by salinity: pioneer Avicennia alba lines the open shore, giving way inland to Rhizophora apiculata and Bruguiera parviflora, while less-salty freshwater zones support Avicennia officinalis, Sonneratia caseolaris, and the palms Nypa fruticans and Phoenix paludosa. The estuarine, or saltwater, crocodile is the flagship species, and the remaining forests shelter rare waterbirds including the lesser adjutant, white-winged wood duck, and spot-billed pelican. Much of this habitat has been lost, however, from wartime defoliation of the Mekong Delta to ongoing conversion into shrimp ponds, so very little of the ecoregion is formally protected. For gardeners, the native mangrove palm Nypa fruticans is a notable horticultural relative of the broader Indomalayan palm flora.
About the mangroves biome
Coastal tidal forests of salt-tolerant trees rooted in sheltered estuaries and shorelines of the tropics and subtropics. Mangroves buffer coasts from storms, store large amounts of carbon, and serve as nurseries for fish and shellfish.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.
Climate-resilient picks · 4
These plants fit this ecoregion today AND remain in range under the mid-century SSP3-7.0 projection. Lead with these for a planting that holds up as the climate shifts.
Currently suited · 48
These plants fit the ecoregion as it is today, but the mid-century projection moves them outside their stated zone range — plan for them to struggle by 2070.
Collections for this ecoregion
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.