Posidonia

prefLabel
  • posidonia
definition
  • Plant with elongated, planar, green leaves which measure up to 1,5 m. The flowers come out in the autumn but not every year. The fruits are dark balls, which one often finds washed up on beaches after storms. The same happens with the leaves which wilt and separate from the plant at the end of summer. It grows on sandy substrates, and has a rhizome from which several plants grow. The compact form of its growths retains the sediments pulled by the currents along the sea bed. Neptunegrass forms extensive prairies, always on the continental shelf. The plant's presence, apart from constituting an excellent refuge and food reserve for many species, gives an indication of the maturity and good condition of the whole marine ecosystem.
inScheme
broader
Abstract from DBPedia
    Posidonia is a genus of flowering plants. It contains nine species of marine plants ("seagrass"), found in the seas of the Mediterranean and around the south coast of Australia. The APG system (1998) and APG II system (2003) accept this genus as constituting the sole genus in the family Posidoniaceae, which it places in the order Alismatales, in the clade monocots. The AP-Website concludes that the three families Cymodoceaceae, Posidoniaceae and Ruppiaceae form a monophyletic group. Earlier systems classified this genus in the family Potamogetonaceae or in the family Posidoniaceae but belonging to order . Posidonia oceanica has nitrogen fixation capabilities via symbiosis and other species may as well.

    (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Posidonia)