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Common name: Eel-grass Family.
Number of genera 3. Number of species 17.
Angiosperm. Liliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Fruit pericarpium; simple; camara; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded; 1-seeded; less than 1 cm long; 0.2–0.65 cm long; 2-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex beaked, or not beaked; apex short beaked; indehiscent, or dehiscent. Dehiscent unit mesocarp(s), or endocarp(s). Dehiscent irregularly (or by slits); without replum. Epicarp evanscent (soft); glabrous (without hairs); with armature, or without armature; with bristles (on inner margins of arms of Phyllospadix); without armature glochidiate; smooth, or not smooth; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; fleshy; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system; and endocarp sharply differentiated. Endocarp present; separating spontaneously from exocarp; fibrous and hard, or bony; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; stone unilocular; stone 1-loculate; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed 1 to less than 5 mm long, or 5 to less than 10 mm long; 2–6.5 mm long; ovate, or elliptic; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity without food reserves, or with food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present (thin); without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; shiny; surface smooth, or unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface longitudinally ribbed, or ridged; without crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; without notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approach each other; without glands; without bristles; glabrous; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades); thin; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo. Endosperm development nuclear, or helobial (depending on author).
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; completely filling testa (no food reserve); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; linear; straight; parallel to seed length; without coleoptile; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 1 cotyledon. Cotyledons one and terminal and sheathing plumule; not modified into scutellum; circinately coiled. Hypocotyl-radicle vestigial; straight; not thickened. Plumule well developed; composed of several seed-leaves.
Distribution
New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Australia, Oceania.
Notes
Cronquist: "Embryo with 1 basally closed and sheathing cotyledon lying in a groove of the enlarged hypocotyl". Haynes & H.-N,: Fruit of two types: achene with scarious epicarp, ovoid to ellispoid or drupelike and crescent shaped.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Phyllospadix Hook. -- Zostera L. -- (GRIN synonymizes Heterozostera (Setch.) Hartog under Zostera)
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1071. Kuo, J., H. Iizumi, B.E. Nilsen, & K. Aioi. 1990. Fruit anatomy, seed germination and seedling development in Japanese seagrass Phyllospadix (Zosteraceae). Aquatic Bot. 37:229–245; Hartog, C. den. 1970. The sea-grasses of the world. Verh. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetensch., Afd. Natuurk. 59:1–275.
General references
Baillon, H.E. 1866–95. Histoire des plantes, 13 vols. Hachette and Co., Paris, Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Gaertner, J. 1788–1805. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum. The Author, Stuttgart, Goldberg, A. 1986 (dicots) and 1989 (monocots). Classification, evolution, and phylogeny of the familes of Dicotyledons. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 58 for dicots (314 pp.) and 71 for monocots (74 pp.). [Goldberg's illustrations are reproduced from older publications and these should be consulted], Gunn, C.R., J.H. Wiersema, C.A. Ritchie, and J.H. Kirkbride, Jr. 1992 and amendments. Families and genera of Spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1796:1–500, LeMaout, E. and J. Decaisne. 1876. A general system of botany, 1,065 p. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and seed illustrations; Cronquist has no illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Baillon, Hartog (1970), LeMaout & Decaisne. Seed illustration(s): Baillon, Hartog (1970), LeMaout & Decasine. Embryo illustration(s): Baillon, LeMaout & Decaisne.
• Spathe. 1 of 3. Heterozostera tasmanica (Asch.) Hartog: spathe (modified leaf sheath) enclosing spadix and fruits. • Fruit. 2 of 3. Heterozostera tasmanica (Asch.) Hartog: fruits. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Zostera marina L.: embryo.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2000 onwards. Family guide for fruits and seeds: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 12th April 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
