Those Talented Mangroves
The mangroves, as always, are standing in their
Mary Oliver, from her poem “Walking to Indian River”
beloved water,
their new leaves very small and tender and pale.
The entrance to the marina near Key Largo was long and narrow. Homes lined the starboard (right) side of our boat and mangroves clustered off port (left). We entered slowly, careful to stay centered in the channel. Because the entry was challenging, the marina had provided written instructions that I read aloud to my husband as he piloted us in.
“Hug the mangroves,” I said.
He glanced at me. Was I kidding?
“That’s what it says.”
He guided our boat closer to them.
More a poet than a captain, I immediately imagined putting my arms around a mangrove. Hugging trees usually comes easy, but a mangrove is a tree of a different order. For one thing, their feet are planted in mud and they’re not shy about showing their skinny-legged aerial roots. It can be a little off-putting. Even the nature-loving poet Mary Oliver told an interviewer, “I’m trying very hard to love the mangroves.”
What I didn’t know—and maybe Oliver didn’t either at the time of her statement—is that mangroves are some of the toughest and most talented of trees. First of all, they are the only species that can tolerate salt water. Their unique root system helps them do this by pulling needed gases from the air and nutrients from the inhospitable soil. They excrete the extra salt through their waxy leaves. What other tree can do this? My admiration began to blossom for this odd-looking fringe species.
They’re fringe in another way too—they live on the margins, at the edges of tidal shorelines in tropical and subtropical climates. Their presence at this in-between space helps stabilize coastlines against tidal erosion, which is becoming more of a threat with climate change.
I also didn’t know that their ecosystems are nurseries and hang-outs for many species of fish, from small minnows to ten-foot sharks. Or that they absorb and store carbon, and they do a better job of it than terrestrial ecosystems.
As I’ve photographed many of the mangroves we encounter on our travels, a fondness for them has taken root in me. Don’t be surprised if you read a headline one day soon: Florida Woman Caught Hugging Mangroves!
