Thalassia

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

• Family

  Hydrocharitaceae

• Scientific Name

  Thalassia

• Description

  Genus Description - Marine herbs, with elongated rootstocks. Leaves several at a joint, sheathing at the base, linear, elongated, the scape arising from the cluster of leaves. Flowers dioecious, solitary in narrow spathes of two bracts, these united into a tube at the base. Staminate flowers long-pedicelled; perianth of 3 petaloid sepals; stamens 6; filaments very short; anthers opening laterally. Pistillate flower nearly sessile in the spathe, caducous; ovary 6-9-celled, beaked. Fruit stalked, rugose or nearly echinate, opening by many valves. Seeds numerous. [Greek, referring to its growth in the ocean.] Two known species, the following typical.