Zostera

Zostera (marine eelgrasses)
Zostera marina
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Alismatales
Family: Zosteraceae
Genus: Zostera
L.
Global distribution map of Zostera. Green indicates presence.
Synonyms
  • Alga Tourn. ex Lam.
  • Heterozostera (Setch.) Hartog
  • Nanozostera Toml. & Posl.
Zostera sp in Mussel Ridge Channel, Birch Island, Maine

Zostera is a small genus of widely distributed seagrasses, commonly called marine eelgrass, or simply seagrass or eelgrass. The genus Zostera contains 9 to 15 species, according to different authors.

Ecology

Zostera marina is found on sandy substrates or, in estuaries, usually submerged or partially floating. Most Zostera are perennial. They have long, bright green, ribbon-like leaves, the width of which are about 1 centimetre (0.4 in). 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.[citation needed]

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 important fish and shellfish. Zostera often forms beds in bay mud in the estuarine setting. It is an important food for brant geese and wigeons, and even (occasionally) caterpillars of the grass moth Dolicharthria punctalis.

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

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

The genus as a whole is widespread throughout seashores of much of the Northern Hemisphere as well as Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and southern Africa. In 2005 an isolated population of Zostera was discovered on the Pacific coast of South America and described as new species Z. chilensis. Later analyses concluded that this population was related to Zostera nigricaulis which is distributed on the coast of Austrailia. One species (Z. noltii) occurs along the land-locked Caspian Sea.

Uses

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.

On the Danish island of Læsø it has been used for thatching roofs. Roofs of eelgrass are said to be heavy, but also much longer-lasting and easier to thatch and maintain than roofs done with more conventional thatching material. More recently, the plant has been used in its dried form for insulation in eco-friendly houses and as a ground cover in permaculture gardens, once its salt layer washed off (ex: Friland, Danish eco-village).

In the United States, eelgrass insulation was commercially marketed in the early 1900s as Cabot's Quilt by the Samuel Cabot Co of Boston. However, due to an outbreak of Labyrinthula zosterae which destroyed crops of eelgrass, combined with the collapse of the homebuilding industry due to the Great Depression, it went out of production and was replaced in new homes with fiberglass (introduced in the late 1930s).

Some studies show promise for eelgrass meadows to sequester atmospheric carbon to reduce anthropogenic climate change.

Species

Accepted species

References

  1. 1 2 "World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew". apps.kew.org. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  2. ↑ Short, F.T., Carruthers, T.J.R., Waycott, M., Kendrick, G.A., Fourqurean, J.W., Callabine, A., Kenworthy, W.J. & Dennison, W.C. 2010. Zostera marina. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T153538A4516675. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T153538A4516675.en. Accessed on 20 October 2026.
  3. ↑ https://www.audubon.org/california/news/eelgrass-cuisine-and-craft
  4. ↑ Eigenartige Geschmacksrichtungen bei Kleinschmetterlingsraupen. Von Albert Grabe , Dortmund. https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/ZOEV_27_0105-0109.pdf
  5. 1 2 Aoki, L. R., Graham, O. J., Yoshioka, R. M., Maher, R., Alma, L., Hofmann, E. E., Burge, C. A., Harvell, D., & Groner, M. L. (2025). Wasting disease of a marine foundation species links community interactions to disease dynamics. Biology Letters, 21(12), Article 20250579. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0579
  6. ↑ Nejrup, L. B., & Pedersen, M. F. (2008). Effects of salinity and water temperature on the ecological performance of Zostera marina. Aquatic Botany, 88(3), 239–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2007.10.006
  7. ↑ https://www.gbif.org/taxon/8W4TW#map
  8. ↑ http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/58144456
  9. ↑ https://www.gbif.org/taxon/5D8J2#map
  10. ↑ Tyler-Walters, Harvey (2005). "Dwarf eelgrass - Zostera noltii - Habitat preferences and distribution". Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN). The Marine Biological Association of the UK. Archived from the original on 2014-04-13. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
  11. 1 2 https://www.smharbor.com/what-is-eelgrass
  12. ↑ Felger, Richard; Moser, Mary B. (1985). People of the Desert and Sea: Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 9780816508181.
  13. ↑ https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200805-denmarks-300-year-old-homes-of-the-future
  14. ↑ Holmer, Marianne (1 November 2018). "Underwater Meadows of Seagrass Could Be the Ideal Carbon Sinks". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 11 August 2021.