Durable in water, it is used for barges, boats, and maritime construction. Though suceptible to dry-wood termites, it is also used for crossties, fences, and turnery. Bark has been used for tanning leather. Sometimes introduced as an ornamental evergreen. Flower clusters mostly 3-8 cm long at end of twigs and in leaf axils, of several small heads, about 5 mm in diameter on slender stalks.
Male flowers lack tubular base and pistil but have longer stamens.
Distribution Bermuda and Bahamas through West Indies to central Florida. From northern Mexico southward on Atlantic Coast to Brazil and on Pacific Coast to Ecuador including Galapagos and northwestern Peru. Western tropical Africa from Senegal to Zaire. It can surely tolerate much higher annual precipitation and annual temperature down to 17deg. Usually in brackish or saline silts of depositing shores, marshes, and stream banks.