An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions/Zosteraceae
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Family 5.
Zosteràceae
Demort.
Anal. Fam. 65, 66.
1829.
Eel-Grass Family.
Perennial marine plants with creeping rootstocks and flattened, branching stems. Leaves all alternate, 2-ranked, linear, flat or complicate, acute or obtuse at the apex and sheathing at the base. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, arranged on a one-sided spadix and enclosed in a close fitting ultimately rupturing spathe. Perianth none, but some of the flowers covered by a hyaline envelope. Staminate flower of a single, sessile, 1-celled anther. Pistillate flower of two, united carpels, with a short or elongated style and 2 thread-like stigmas. Seeds ribbed or smooth.
About 6 species of marine distribution, the following the type of the genus.