Botany lecture 11

• Seagrasses


  Flowering plants that live completely submerged in marine and estuarine waters
• Seagrasses


  • Highly productive ecosystem
  • Shelter and food to a diverse group of animals
• Seagrasses


  • Have roots, stems and leaves and reproductive parts such as flowers and fruits
• Seagrasses


  • No stomata
  • Thin porous cuticle
• Leaf shapes


  • Linear - Cymodocea & Halodule species
  • Cylindrical - Syringodium isoetifolium
  • Ovate - Halophila ovalis
  • Oblong linear - Halophila spinulosa
  • Linear-falcate - Thalassadendron ciliatum
  • Lanceolate - Halophila beccarii
• Leaf margins


  • Entire - Halophila ovalis
  • Serrate - Halodule decipiens, Halophila spinulosa, Thalassadendron ciliatum
• Leaf tips


  • Rounded - Cymodocea rotundata
  • Serrate - Cymodocea serrulata, Thalassia hemprichii
  • Tridentate - Halodule uninervis
  • Bifurcate - Thalassodendron pachyrhizum
• Branching types


  • Semi-amplexicaulous - Halophila spp. except spinulosa
  • Whorled - Thalassadendron ciliatum
  • Distichous or Opposite - Halophila spinulosa