What Lives Inside Singapore’s Mangroves?
31 October 2026 | Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Singapore
I went to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve on Halloween with one goal: find a crocodile. I found two, plus a fish poison tree, a flying snake and a stork in pink.
The day started at 9:30 in the morning with the plants along the trail. The crocodiles, as it turned out, did not appear until much later. In between, the mangroves kept me busy enough that I almost forgot what I came for.
Here is how the day unfolded, in the order things showed up.
9:30 am: Plants that people actually use
Many plants along the trail have long histories of human use. Knowing those stories made every stop more memorable.
Sea Poison Tree
The first find was on the ground: a fallen flower made of long white stamens tipped with pink. It came from the Sea Poison Tree, Barringtonia asiatica, also called Putat Laut.
The flowers open at night for bats and moths, then drop by morning. Day visitors only ever see the evidence on the ground. Nearby lay its fruit, a corky, four-sided box that floats.
Fishermen once made good use of this tree. The seeds contain saponins, and crushed seeds were once thrown into pools to stun fish. The buoyant fruits also served as floats for fishing nets.
Pandan
Next was a clump of fragrant pandan, Pandanus amaryllifolius. Knotted leaves go into the pot when cooking nasi lemak. Blended and squeezed, they give pandan cake its flavour and green colour.
The same juice turns up in kaya, kuih and the Filipino dessert buko pandan. Crush a leaf and you get that sweet, rice-like smell. Please do not harvest the reserve’s garden for dessert.
Simpoh Air
Further along was a shrub with big leathery leaves and straight, rib-like veins. This was Simpoh Air, Dillenia suffruticosa, one of Singapore’s most common native shrubs.
Its tough leaves were once used to wrap tempeh and other food at markets. It is also a pioneer plant, quick to colonise cleared or swampy ground. I caught it flowering, with bright yellow blooms above the leaves.
Elephant’s Ear
Next came a plant often called Elephant’s Ear, which looked like Giant Taro, Alocasia macrorrhizos, a close relative of the taro in orh nee and yam cake.
True taro, Colocasia esculenta, holds its leaves pointing downward. Giant Taro points them up and out. Both contain needle-like calcium oxalate crystals, so taro must be cooked thoroughly before eating.
Fishtail Palm
Above the taro grew a Fishtail Palm, Caryota mitis. Its triangular leaflets have ragged edges that look just like a fish’s tail fin.
There is a lovely detail about this palm. A fallen leaflet floating on the water can be mistaken for a fish. Somewhere, a heron has probably stabbed one and felt quietly betrayed.
Snorkels and stilts: how mangroves breathe
At low tide, the mangrove mud showed two different solutions to the same problem. Mangrove mud is waterlogged and almost free of oxygen, so roots struggle to breathe.
The large sprawling tree with pale grey bark was an Api-api, Avicennia. Thousands of pencil-like spikes covered the mud around it. These pneumatophores rise from buried roots and work like snorkels when the tide is out.
Beside it stood a Bakau, Rhizophora, with arching stilt roots around its base. These roots anchor the tree in soft mud and take in air above the waterline.
Bakau trunks were once used for charcoal. The dense wood burns hot and slow, and Singapore once had charcoal kilns fed by mangrove wood. The bark is rich in tannins, used to dye and preserve fishing nets.
One less charming detail: plastic litter caught among the pneumatophores. That dense root mat traps sediment brilliantly, and unfortunately it traps rubbish just as well.
A sunbathing skink
On a fallen log near the plant trail, a Common Sun Skink, Eutropis multifasciata, was basking. Its bronze back and bright orange flank stripe suggested a male.
Sun skinks warm up on logs in the morning, then vanish into leaf litter when you move. This one stayed put long enough for a few photos. The white fungi on the log were busy recycling the dead wood beneath it.
10:30 am: A tenant on its landlord’s roof
Along the mangrove boardwalk, a dark crab with reddish-purple claws sat on a lumpy mound of mud. It looked like a Vinegar Crab, Episesarma, common in Singapore’s mangroves.
Vinegar crabs eat fallen mangrove leaves, recycling a lot of leaf litter. They also climb mangrove trunks at high tide to avoid hungry fish.
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The mound itself was the bonus. It was most likely built by a Mud Lobster, Thalassina, which digs deep burrows and piles the mud into volcano-like heaps. Crabs often move in and use those burrows as ready-made homes.
10:45 am: A snake that glides
Fifteen minutes later, a slender snake lay coiled on a wooden rail. Its black scales with yellow-green centres and barred head pointed to a Paradise Tree Snake, Chrysopelea paradisi.
This is Singapore’s common flying snake. It launches from branches, flattens its body into a concave shape and glides surprisingly long distances. It is rear-fanged and mildly venomous, but harmless to people.
11:00 am: A stork in pink
At 11 o’clock, a tall wader stood on one leg atop a concrete block in the mud. Its bare orange-red face, drooping yellow bill and pink-washed back marked it as a Painted Stork, Mycteria leucocephala.
The pink comes from carotenoids in its diet, much like a flamingo. Standing on one leg helps wading birds save body heat.
There is a Singapore twist, though. Painted Storks are not native here, and those around Sungei Buloh are generally linked to the bird park’s free-flying colony. Some have interbred with the endangered Milky Stork.
Pure Painted Storks usually show a black band across the breast. I could not see a clear one on this bird, so it may be a hybrid. Birders, feel free to weigh in.
12:09 pm and 2:09 pm: The crocodiles, finally
After two and a half hours of plants, crabs and birds, the reason I came finally showed up. Both were Estuarine Crocodiles, Crocodylus porosus, exactly two hours apart.
The young one
At 12:09 pm, a young crocodile drifted with only its head above the water. Its golden eye with a slit pupil caught the light between the branches.
Young estuarine crocodiles have bold dark markings on a paler background, which helps them hide among mangrove roots. They stay in sheltered water partly because big crocodiles are not above eating them.
The big one
Exactly two hours later, at 2:09 pm, the adult appeared on a mud bank by the water. Its head was raised and its eyes half closed, showing off rows of armoured scutes along its back.
This adult still carried plenty of pale mottling, so not every grown crocodile turns plain olive. The darkening is gradual, and some keep their pattern well into adulthood.
It looked completely relaxed, with that particular “I could eat you, but it’s too warm” expression. I was happy to keep the boardwalk between us.
What a Halloween
I came for crocodiles and left with a lesson in how people and mangroves have lived together. Fishermen stunned fish with Sea Poison seeds, floated nets on its fruit and dyed them with Bakau bark.
Most people spent Halloween in costumes. I spent it with a poison tree and a snake that flies. I think I got the better deal.
If you plan your own visit, a few things helped me:
- Go early, because the morning light is kinder and the reserve is quieter.
- Bring water and a hat, because the boardwalk gets hot by midday.
- Check the tide times, because low tide exposes the roots, crabs and mudflats.
- Be patient with the crocodiles, as mine took almost five hours to appear.
- Stay on the boardwalk, keep your distance from wildlife and take your litter home.
The mangroves were generous that day. The next visit has a lot to live up to.
