Mangrove Forest of Bushehr

The Mangrove Forest is different from the common imagination of a forest. The Mangrove Forest emerges in a salty seawater and jungle trekking in Mangrove Forest needs a boa, so it might be a wonderful adventure.

On the map of Iran especially in the southern coastal areas, there are green tiny spots same as the Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests that represent Mangrove Forests.

Harra or Mangrove is expanded from Gwatar coast in Sistan & Baluchistan Province to Bordekhoun in Bushehr Province. The Mangrove habitats of Iran are under international protection as the Nature Reserve.

These habitats are named differently in local dialects and languages; In Hormozgan (Harra), in Baluchi (Tamar), in Bushehr (Gorm) and in the other parts of the southern Iran they are called Tul. The Latin name of Mangrove is Avicennia marina has been derived from the name of Avicenna, the Persian scholar.

In the Iranian habitats of Mangrove, Avicennia marina is the common species. The second common species is Avicennia nitida which is known as black mangrove. Avicenna Officinalis lives in these habitats as well.

Mangrove is a tropical plant, 2 meters in average height and less than 1.5-meter canopy which grows in saltwater and gets the nutrients through upward roots, but in the habitats of Iran the height of the plants usually reaches to 7 meters.

Mangrove leaf is covered by a protective layer to avoid dehydration. In some species, there is a mechanism to excrete salt. Mangrove is a viviparous plant, in the night time new branches are separated from the parent plant and root in a suitable bed. Mangrove forests of Bushehr in Nayband gulf is the most expanded habitats of mangrove in Southwestern Asia that reaches to 390 hectares. Asaluye Mangrove Forests is also a fresh air store for the southern coast of Iran which is polluted by the oil and gas industries.

Many species are interdependent to the mangrove forests; The birds especially the fish catcher ones e.g. the kingfishers, cranes, storks, Pelicans, Ducks and Laridaes. Mangrove Forest ecosystem is the haven of many insects, frogs, fishes, shells and snails.