Zosteraceae

Taxobox
name = Zosteraceae

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image_width = 230px
image_caption = "Zostera noltii", from Thomé (1885)
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Liliopsida
ordo = Alismatales
familia = Zosteraceae
familia_authority = Dumort.
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = "Heterozostera"
"Phyllospadix"
"Zostera"

The flowering plant family Zosteraceae, or the seagrasses, is a family of marine perennial herbs that grow in coastal waters of temperate and subtropical zones. Most of the seagrasses complete their entire life cycle under water, [cite journal|last = Ackerman|first = JD|authorlink = http://www.unbc.ca/ensc/faculty.html|title = Submarine pollination in the marine angiosperm "Zostera marina" (Zosteraceae) I: The influence of floral morphology on fluid flow|journal = American Journal of Botany|volume = 84|issue = 8|pages = 1099–1109|publisher = Botanical Society of America|date = 1997|url = http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/84/8/1099?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&minscore=5000&resourcetype=HWCIT|accessdate = 2007-06-02|doi = 10.2307/2446153] with filamentous pollen especially adapted to dispersion in an aquatic environment, and with leaves lacking stomata for atmospheric gas exchange and regulation of desiccation.

The family has long been recognized by taxonomists as monophyletic. The APG II system, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, of 1998), recognizes this family and places it in the order Alismatales, in the clade monocots. The family consists of two or three genera totalling about a dozen species, of marine plants ("seagrass"). The plants have ribbonlike leaves and prominent creeping rhizomes.

References

External links

* [http://delta-intkey.com/angio/www/Zosterac.htm Zosteraceae] in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards).
* [http://delta-intkey.com/angio/ The families of flowering plants] : descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Version: 27th April 2006.
* [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=10962 Zosteraceae in the "Flora of North America"]
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Tree&id=27254&lvl=3&lin=f&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock NCBI Taxonomy Browser]
* [http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/cgi/gateway_family?fam=Zosteraceae links at CSDL, Texas]