Mandai Mangrove on 7 Mar 2010

I was back at Mandai Mangrove last Sunday. This mangrove was one of the most well-studied mangrove in the world, but unfortunately, the area may soon be developed.


It has one of the biggest mudflat in Singapore, and lots of migratory birds come here to feed during low tide. However, I did not bring my zoom camera, and thus did not take any bird photos.


There were lots of Iridescent Crabs (Perisesarma indiarum), and I was glad that I finally managed to get a few decent photos of them.


This Mangrove Horseshoe Crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda) had so many barnacles growing on its back. I wondered if it found them to be heavy.


This is probably a male Mangrove Big-Jawed Spider (Tetragnatha josephi), but most Tetragnatha spiders supposedly look rather similar, so guess it's really hard to say for sure.


I was rather happy to find a few rather mature Kalak Kambing (Finlaysonia obovata), many of them were climbing over nearby mangrove trees.


The Beccari's Seagrass (Halophila beccarii) was every where. This seagrass can be commonly found covering wide areas in several of our northern mangroves which I had visited.


We were quite lucky to find a blooming Brownlowia tersa.


There were a few fruits too!


However, the thing that really got me all excited was this blooming Mangrove Lime (Merope angulata)!


Here's a freshly opened flower where the petals were still in good shape.


And here's an older flower which was slowly withering.


We saw a number of fruits too.


There were even some ripe ones, which were yellow in colour!

While I did not managed to find the Kacang Kacang (Aegiceras corniculatum) again this time round, it was definitely still a very rewarding trip!