The Red Sea mangroves are scattered coastal stands fringing the Red Sea across seven countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The grey mangrove, Avicennia marina, dominates and typically forms nearly pure, monospecific stands, with Rhizophora mucronata, Bruguiera gymnorhiza, and Ceriops tagal appearing only in a few areas. Conditions are harsh: there are no permanent rivers or freshwater inputs, salinity is high, and summer sea-surface temperatures exceed 31 degrees Celsius, while iron-poor carbonate soils stunt the trees to roughly two to three metres tall. Despite the global decline of mangrove ecosystems, this one expanded between 1972 and 2013, notably along the Eritrean coast, and its tangled roots shelter migratory birds and serve as nursery grounds for fish, with the Goliath heron as the ecoregion's flagship species. For gardeners, Avicennia marina is the signature native woody plant of this saline, low-rainfall coastal habitat.

At a glance

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.

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.

Related ecoregions