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(Last Modified On 5/9/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/9/2013)
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Genus
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Thalassia Banks ex Kbnig
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PlaceOfPublication
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Ann. Bot. (Kbnig & Sims) 2: 96. 1805.
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Synonym
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Schizotheca Ehrenb. ex Solms in Schweinf.,, Beitr. Fl. Aethiop. 1: 194, 246. 1867.
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Description
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Dioecious marine herbs, with numerous tannin cells; rhizome monopodial, terete; internodes short, with fine longitudinal grooves; roots 1 at each node, short, unbranched, with longitudinal air channels, densely set with fine root-hairs; scales membranous, 1 at each node. Leaves 2-6, distichously arranged on short, erect lateral shoots, linear, often somewhat falcate, differentiated into a green blade and a pale basal sheath, obtuse and finely serrulate apically, the margin entire, the main veins 9-17, parallel, joining the intramarginal veins near the apex, many fine longitudinal air channels and short brown tannin cells parallel with the veins. Inflorescences pedunculate, 1-2 on the staminate plants, 1 on the carpellate, always 1-flowered; spathal leaves of the staminate plants connate only on 1 side, those of the carpellate connate on both sides. Staminate flowers shortly pedicel- late; tepals 3, elliptic; stamens 3-12, the anthers subsessile, light yellow, oblong, erect, (2-3-) 4-thecate, lengthwise latrorsely dehiscent. Carpellate flowers sub- sessile; tepals 3; gynoecium 6-8 carpelled, the ovary muricate, 1-loculed or imperfectly 2- or 3-loculed, with a long partly persistent hypanthium, the placentas parietal, protruding far toward the center of the ovary, the styles 6-8, each split into 2 filiform stigmas 2-6 times as long as the style, each with 2 longitudinal grooves on the underside. Fruits globose, echinate, beaked, the fleshy pericarp bursting into a number of irregular stellately spreading valves; seeds few, ca. 8-10 mm long, conical with a thickened basal portion, the testa fugacious; embryo with a large hypocotyl, corresponding with the conical part of the seed, a cotyledon forming the thickened basal rim, the plumule small, pressed against the hypocotyl, the primary root rudimentary.
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Habit
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herbs
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Distribution
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A genus of two closely related species, one occurring in the West Indies and the other in the tropical parts of the Indian and western Pacific Oceans.
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