• You are here:
• Simple Key
• Aquatic plants
• Water plants with leaves and stems
• Zostera marina

Zostera marina — eel-grass, seawrack

Facts

Eel-grass is one of the most important marine plants. Eel-grass meadows serve as nurseries for many marine vertebrates, as well as micro- and macro-invertebrates. Because of this, and because it also helps stabilize the substrate, it is often used in marine habitat restoration. It is also used for packing material, and as food.

Habitat

Intertidal, subtidal or open ocean

Characteristics

• Clonal plantlets

  Turion length

  0 mm

• Flowers

  Anther color

  there is a noticeable pink, reddish or purplish tint to the anthers

  Anther length

  1 mm

  Carpels fused

  the carpel is solitary or (if 2 or more) the carpels are not fused to one another

  Flower lower lip length

  0 mm

  Flower number

  1–20

  Flower position

  the flowers are below the surface of the water

  Flower symmetry

  NA

  Inflorescence length

  20–80 mm

  Inflorescence type

  the inflorescence is a spike (a long unbranched stem with flowers along it that lack stalks)

  Length of flower stalk

  0 mm

  Nectar spur

  the flower has no nectar spurs

  Number of carpels

  0–2

  Ovary position

  NA

  Palate on corolla

  NA

  Petal and sepal arrangement

  the flower includes neither petals nor sepals

  Petal appearance

  NA

  Petal color

  NA

  Petal fringed edges

  NA

  Petal fusion

  NA

  Petal hairs on inner/upper surface

  NA

  Petal length

  0 mm

  Petal number

  0

  Petal or sepal number

  there are no petals, sepals, or tepals in the flower, or they are not clearly present

  Pistil number

  • 0
  • 1

  Sepal appearance

  NA

  Sepal length

  0 mm

  Sepal number

  0

  Sepals fused only to sepals

  NA

  Spur length

  0 mm

  Stamen length

  4–5 mm

  Stamen number

  • 0
  • 1 or 2

  Stamen position relative to petals

  NA

  Stamens fused

  the stamens are not fused to one another

  Stamens fused to petals

  • NA
  • the stamens are not fused to the petals or tepals

  Style length

  1–3 mm

  Style number

  0–2

• Fruits or seeds

  Fruit beak length

  1–2 mm

  Fruit length

  3–4 mm

  Fruit type (general)

  the fruit is fleshy

  Fruit type (specific)

  the fruit is a drupe (fleshy, with a firm inner ovary wall that encloses a single seed)

• Glands or sap

  Oil glands on nodes

  none of the nodes have oil glands

  Sap

  the sap is clear and watery

• Growth form

  Lifespan

  the plant lives more than two years

  Root septa

  the roots do not have transverse septa

  Roots floating in water

  there are no clusters of roots floating in the water

  Turions

  there are no turions on the plant

  Underground organs

  the plant has a rhizome (a horizontal underground stem with roots growing from it)

• Leaves

  Bract position (Sparganium)

  NA

  Bract relative length

  At least 3854 mm

  Bracts

  neither the flowers nor their pedicels have bracts

  Floating leaf basal lobes

  NA

  Floating leaf blade width

  0 mm

  Floating leaf length

  0 mm

  Floating leaf shape

  NA

  Floating leaf tip

  NA

  Floral bract form

  NA

  Floral bract length

  0 mm

  Leaf arrangement

  alternate: there is one leaf per node along the stem

  Leaf blade length

  300–1100 mm

  Leaf blade veins

  the lateral veins are parallel or slightly arched in the direction of the tip

  Leaf blade width

  2–12 mm

  Leaf position

  the leaves are all submerged underwater

  Leaf special features

  none of the mentioned special features are present

  Leaf-like branch segments

  0

  Leaf-like branch shape

  NA

  Specific leaf type

  the leaf is not divided, rather the blade is made up of one segment

  Staminate bract edge (Myriophyllum)

  NA

  Stipule appearance

  NA

  Stipule fused to leaf

  NA

  Stipules

  there are no stipules on the plant

  Stipules fused around stem

  NA

  Trap-bladder length

  0 mm

  Underwater leaf blade edges

  • the underwater leaf blade edges are toothed
  • the underwater leaf has smooth edges, without teeth

  Underwater leaf blade shape

  the underwater leaf blade is linear (very narrow with more or less parallel sides)

  Underwater leaf blade veins

  5–11

  Underwater leaf blade width

  2–12 mm

  Underwater leaf length

  Up to 1100 mm

  Underwater leaf stalk

  no

  Underwater leaf stalk length

  0 mm

  Underwater leaf tip shape

  • the tip of the underwater leaf is obtuse (bluntly pointed)
  • the tip of the underwater leaf is rounded, with no point

  Veins in floating leaf

  0

• Place

  Habitat

  • aquatic
  • wetlands

  New England state

  • Connecticut
  • Maine
  • Massachusetts
  • New Hampshire
  • Rhode Island

  Specific habitat

  intertidal, subtidal or open ocean

• Stem, shoot, branch

  Flowering stem growth form

  the flowering stem is upright

Wetland status

Occurs only in wetlands. (Wetland indicator code: OBL)

New England distribution and conservation status

From the dichotomous key of Flora Novae Angliae