Fruits of the Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), called propagules, are unique in that they sprout while still attached to the plant. They eventually drop into the water and ride the currents until the long, pointed end (the tap root) lodges in the muddy bottom of a shallow water region. Stilt-rooted thickets of Red Mangrove are a familiar site throughout tropical and subtropical coastal salt water regions of the western Atlantic from Brazil north to Florida and Bermuda, as well as the eastern Pacific coast of Baja south to Ecuador.