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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Ruppiaceae
Ruppia maritima

Citation: L., Sp. pl. 127 (1753).

Synonymy: R. rostellata Koch ex Reichb., Ic. Bot. Exot. 2:66 (1824).

Common name: Sea tassel.

Description:
Rhizomatous perennial with erect stems to 5 cm long; leaves filiform, to 15 cm long, to 0.5 mm broad; apices acute to obtuse; turions absent.

Inflorescence 2-flowered, pollinated underwater; peduncle usually less than 5 (always less than 10) cm long, not coiled but often recurved in the fruit; carpels 2-5, initially subsessile; mature carpel stalk longer than the carpel, to 25 mm, with a slender straight base, 0.3-0.5 mm wide at its attachment to the endocarp.

Fruiting carpel flask-shaped, almost symmetrical (more so than in European material), 2-4 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide; endocarp beak c. 0.5 (occasionally to 1) mm long, with a narrow-ovate to ovate perforation on each side.

Distribution:  In brackish to hypersaline inland waters. Very little is known about this species in Australia; records are few; individual plants and populations seem to spread slowly in inland water bodies e.g. saline lakes, mound springs and artesian bores.

S.Aust.: NW, LE, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   W.Aust.; N.T.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.   Cosmopolitan. This species is common in Europe.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: July — Dec.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available


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