Männän

Männän is a perennial wetland plant described in field guides of the fictional Väinö Archipelago. It grows in coastal brackish marshes and along tidal flats where salinity and moisture vary with the seasons. The plant forms dense clumps with erect stems typically 30 to 70 centimeters tall. Leaves are narrow and lanceolate, arranged alternately and bearing a glossy surface with a pale midrib. The inflorescence is a terminal spike of small tubular flowers, usually pink to lilac, flowering from late spring through midsummer. The fruit is a round to oblong capsule containing numerous seeds adapted for water dispersal.

Männän favors mineral-rich, well-drained mud and clay substrates and tolerates periodic inundation. It is most common in low-lying coastal habitats and can occur at the margins of salt- and brackish-water channels. The species is pollinated mainly by native bees and hoverflies, with seeds dispersed by water and, to a lesser extent, wind. It can reproduce vegetatively through creeping rhizomes, allowing clonal spread.

Conservation status is not globally defined within this fictional setting, but local populations are described as sensitive to coastal development, sedimentation, and changes in hydrology. In landscape use, Männän is occasionally cultivated in ornamental saline gardens for its tolerance to salt and its pinkish summer flowers.

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