Far south of the Chesapeake, fringing tropical and subtropical coastlines, there exist floating forests of mangroves, whose roots grow in a luxuriant tangle at the ocean's edge. And there, they thrive. Botanists call the 50 species of mangroves halophylic, or "salt loving."
Mangroves have adapted to putting down roots where other plants can't: in areas inundated daily by the tide; in thin, nutrient-poor, low-oxygen soils; and in water that varies from fresh to brackish to salty.