Zostera

Zostera
Zostera marina
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Monocots Order: Alismatales Family: Zosteraceae Genus: Zostera
Species
About 12 species, including: Zostera angustifolia Zostera capricorni Zostera japonica Zostera marina Zostera muelleri Zostera nana Zostera noltii

Zostera is a small genus of widely distributed seagrass, commonly called marine eelgrass or (outside North America) simply eelgrass. It contains twelve species.

Zostera is found on sandy substrates or in estuaries submerged or partially floating. Most Zostera are perennial. They have long, bright green, ribbon-like leaves, about 1 cm wide. Short stems grow up from extensive, white branching rhizomes. The flowers are enclosed in the sheaths of the leaf bases, the fruits are bladdery and can float.

Zostera beds are important for sediment deposition, substrate stabilization, as substrate for epiphytic algae and micro-invertebrates, and as nursery grounds for many species of economically important fish and shellfish. Zostera often forms beds in bay mud in the estuarine setting. It is an important food for Brent Geese and Wigeon.

Eelgrass, taken at Mussel Ridge Chanel, Birch Island Maine

The Slime mold Labyrinthula zosterae can cause wasting disease of Zostera, with Z. marina being particularly susceptible, causing a decrease in the populations of the fauna that depend on Zostera.

Eelgrass has been used for food by the Seri tribe of Native Americans on the coast of Sonora, Mexico. The rhizomes and leaf-bases of eelgrass were eaten fresh or dried into cakes for winter food. It was also used for smoking deer meat. The Seri language has many words related to eelgrass and eelgrass-harvesting. The month of April is called xnoois ihaat iizax, literally "the month when the eelgrass seed is mature".

Zostera has also been used as packing material and as stuffing for mattresses and cushions.

Eel grass once grew in abundance in Barnegat Bay, NJ, where it was harvested, dried out and used for house insulation (e.g., the Governor's summer mansion in Island Beach State Park). Unfortunately, a blight decimated the eelgrass, which ended harvesting of the plant. The plant is making a gradual comeback.

Zostera is able to maintain its turgor at a constant pressure in response to fluctuations in environmental osmolarity. It achieves this by losing solutes as the tide goes out and gaining solutes as the tide comes in.

Distribution

Zostera marina L. and Zostera nana Roth have both been recorded from Lough Foyle, Northern Ireland.^[1]

Zostera capricorni occurs in Australia

References

1. ^ Blackler, H. 1951 An algal survey of Lough Foyle, Northern Ireland. Proc. Roy. Ir. Accad. 54B(6): 97 - 139

• Felger, Richard; Mary B. Moser. (1985). People of the Desert and Sea: Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 

External links

• Flora Europaea: Zostera
• Flora of North America: Zostera
• Flora of China: Zostera species list
• Wasting disease of Zostera
• Historical Changes of Eelgrass in Buzzards Bay, MA (USA)
• SeagrassLI

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