They grow up to 30 m (100 ft) tall often with aerial stilt roots, but in more marginal habitats are shorter, more branched and scrubby.

The lower surfaces have numerous tiny corky warts which appear as black spots on dried leaves.

[2] In West Africa, estuaries, bays and lagoons are fringed by tidal mangrove forests, dominated by Rhizophora and Avicennia.

When new mudflats are formed, seagrasses are the first plants that grow on the mud, with Rhizophora racemosa, a pioneering species, being the first mangrove to appear.

[3] The nipa palm (Nypa fruticans) has been introduced to Nigeria and Cameroon and has become invasive, to the detriment of the native mangrove species.