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 While most top soil along the Swahili Coast soil is too poor and sandy to support a wide variety of plant life, a 10-mile-wide strip of fertile land just beyond the coast provides an ample source for cultivating crops like rice and citrus plants introduced by Omani traders. Cinnamon, cardamom, pepper and clove plants can also be found. Coconut palms can be grown in the sand and broken coral can be found along the Indian Ocean. Extensive cultivation has destroyed most of the region's indigenous species, however, and only dense mangroves remain in most areas.
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Mangrove tree (Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (L.) Savigny):
 This is one of several species that make up what is commonly called mangrove forest. Mangroves, found along the east coast of Africa, in Madagascar, the Seychelle Islands and throughout Southeast Asia, grow relatively straight, and up to 24 ft. tall. Like many mangrove-type trees, it has a root system that is often exposed to allow it to absorb oxygen without being immersed in salt water. While this tree does produce edible berries, they are hard, green, bitter and not particularly appetizing.
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Clove tree (Syzygium aromaticum ):
 While clove trees are not indigenous to the Swahili Coast of mainland Africa, Zanzibar and Pemba Islands, also part of the coastal eco-system, are the world's largest exporters of the clove tree's flavorful dried flowers. Believed to have originated on the Moluccas, or the Spice Islands, of Indonesia, the clove plant has been cultivated for the last 2000 years, and traded widely for its strong scent and flavor. The clove tree is a small, tropical evergreen, up to 20 feet tall, with oblong leaves 5 to 10 inches long and 2 to 4 inches wide. Clove oil is widely used in cosmetics and confections. When oxidized, it produces vanillin.
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Baobab (Adansonia digitata):
 Also known as the rat tree, or monkey-bread or bottle tree, this is one of the largest trees on the planet. Its trunks are often 50 ft. wide, and it can reach heights of up to 85 ft . The straight long trunk ends in a comparatively few crooked branches. The baobab is completely without leaves in the dry season. Some local legends say that spirits planted the baobab tree upside down, thus accounting for its scraggly appearance in the dry season. The rainy season brings on long, hanging flowers which yield edible "monkey fruit."
Mangrove Photo Credit/Copyright: Lani Stemmermann courtesy of the University of Hawaii
Baobab Photo Credit/Copyright: Robert Williams www/robs-travel-photos.com
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