Description: Trees to 25 m high, bark fi ssured; pneumatophores to 50×6 cm, straight, stout, corky, brownish grey or orangecoloured, outer layer fl aky; bark brown, cracked; branchlets angled, nodes swollen with 2 lateral pair of circular glands. Leaves simple, opposite-decussate, 4-11×3.5-6.5 cm, broadly ovate or broadly elliptic, base cuneate, apex mucronate, emarginate or obtuse, thick, slightly fl eshy, green; lateral veins looped near the margin; petiole stout, red. Flowers pink, to 6×5-7 cm, terminal, solitary; pedicel quadrangular. Calyx green outside, white within. Petals 6, free, purple to violet red, membranous, cauducous. Stamens many, free, infl exed in bud, cauducous; fi laments reddish below, white above, thread like, anthers reniform, bilobed. Style coiled in bud, to 6 cm. Fruit a drupe, to 7 cm across, globose, slightly fl attened, pericarp smooth; seeds many, embedded in the fleshy pulp of the placenta, angular with rough surface.
Occurrence in Maldives: Was very common in some of the northern islands in 90's but due to habitat loss the number of this species have dropped significantly in the past decade. Now this species can be called as "RARE" in Maldives.