Indonesian: Stigi; Santigi.
Region: widespread, Pacific Islands; east Africa, Indian Ocean, coastal Asia to Australia, Marshall Islands.
Habitat: sandy shores, at or even below high-water mark, inlets in mangrove forests, coral-rag thicket; in areas exposed to salt spray and the drier sides of swamps; coastal limestone rocks, cliffs, and on limestone bedrock outcrops on atolls.
Content: 19 - 43% tannin; alloyl flavonol glycosides with antioxidant activity.
Use: ornamental, bonsai; food, medicine; timber; wood very good quality, but small size; shoreline protection; for tanning; rotting wood, mixed with coconut oil, as a cosmetic; scraped bark yields a red dye; thick, fleshy leaves are used as a pot herb; acid tasting leaves are eaten raw or boiled as a vegetable; fruits are sometimes eaten; wood for smaller items, house posts, fence posts, tool handles, digging sticks, walking-sticks, domestic implements, turnery, anchors, boat nails, thatching needles, pestles, mortars, drums, walking canes; wood for fuel, charcoal, burns with a very hot flame.
BotanyLow-growing, evergreen shrub; 0.6 - 8 to 11 metres tall; densely branching; sometimes a dwarf creeping shrublet only 15 cm high; very sturdy and resilient.
Stem: gnarled and much-branched; heartwood is reddish brown to dark reddish brown, turning dark brown upon exposure; sapwood is pale, grain is interlocked, texture very fine, lustrous, very heavy, very hard, very strong, very durable, resistant to dry-wood termite and Lyctus attacks, dries well, shrinkage is moderate,difficult to work, difficult to split, high finish, easily polished.
Leaves: small, fleshy, succulent; or larger, flat, not fleshy; covered in silky, colorless trichomes.
Flowers: throughout the year.
Pollination: by bees.
Seeds: floating.
Dispersion: by water.