Mangroves

Blind-your-eye Mangrove

Excoecaria agallocha

IUCN: LC

Its milky sap is toxic and can cause temporary blindness if it gets in the eyes, hence the local name buta-buta.

Blind-your-eye Mangrove (Excoecaria agallocha) is a mangrove of the family Euphorbiaceae recorded in the biodiversity data of PRPM Mengare.

It is one of 22 species in the group “Mangroves” recorded at the site.

How to recognise it

Form: Small to medium tree, 4–15 m tall, many-branched, grey-brown bark.
Roots: No special aerial roots; side roots spread through the mud.
Leaves: Opposite or nearly opposite, elliptic to lance-shaped, 6–14 cm, glossy green, pointed tip, sometimes red when young.
Flowers: Spikes in the leaf axils; small greenish flowers, male and female on separate trees.
Fruit & seed: Small round capsule about 1 cm across, brown when ripe; smooth round seeds.

Did you know?

The milky sap of Excoecaria agallocha is highly toxic: it can irritate and swell the skin and cause temporary blindness if it gets in the eyes, which is where the name “buta-buta” (blind) comes from. Despite this, it plays an important role in stabilising the mangrove edge.