Taxonomy and biogeography of seagrasses

Abstract

Seagrasses are aquatic angiosperms, which are confined to the marine environment. The term seagrass (with several linguistic variants in the Germanic language group) refers undoubtedly to the grasslike habit of most of its representatives. The term has been long used by fisherman, hunters, farmers, and other inhabitants of the coastal areas of several European countries, i.e. areaswhere only species occur with long linear leaves. Ascherson (1871) probably was the first researcher to introduce the term into the scientific literature. © 2006/2007 Springer. All Rights Reserved.