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Zostera marina

Common name:	Eel Grass	Family:	Zosteraceae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	17
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Europe, including Britain, from Norway south and east to the Mediterranean.
Habitat:	Fine gravel, sand or mud in the sea from low water spring tides down to depths of 4 metres[17]. It is rarely found in estuaries[17].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	1

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Groot Zeegras [D], Seawrack [P,B],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	marina = near sea;
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Najadales. Eel-grass family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Mexico(Seri)

Physical Characteristics

Perennial growing to 1m. . It is in flower from June to September, and the seeds ripen from August to October. The flowers are monoecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but both sexes can be found on the same plant) and are pollinated by Water. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils and can grow in saline soil. It cannot grow in the shade. It can grow in water.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Pond.

Edible Uses

Leaves; Root; Seed.

Leaves - raw or cooked[177, 256]. The leaf bases are crisp and sweet, they were often used as a feast food by the native North American Indians[256].
Seed[177]. No more details are given.
The root of the plant is chewed for its saccharine juice[2, 105]. The root is crisp and sweet, it was used as a flavoring by the native North American Indians and was also dried for winter food[256]. The raw rhizomes were often used as a feast food[256].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Women's complaints.

The leaves are used in the treatment of dropsy, goiter and women's illnesses[218].

Other Uses

Compost; Packing.

The dried leaves and stems are used as a packing material[46, 61, 66, 100].
The plant is frequently used as a manure[2].

Cultivation details

A plant of shallow sea water, it is not really suitable for normal cultivation.

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe.
Division.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA's Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Zosteraceae.

To be included in the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.

[66] Freethy. R. From Agar to Zenery. The Crowood Press 1985 ISBN 0-946284-51-2
Very readable, giving details on plant uses based on the authors own experiences.

[100] Polunin. O. Flowers of Europe - A Field Guide. Oxford University Press 1969 ISBN 0192176218
An excellent and well illustrated pocket guide for those with very large pockets. Also gives some details on plant uses.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of Latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

[218] Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. Medicinal Plants of China Reference Publications, Inc. 1985 ISBN 0-917256-20-4
Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.

[256] Turner. N. J. Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples UBC Press. Vancouver. 1995 ISBN 0-7748-0533-1
Excellent little handbook about the native food plants of Western Canada. Good descriptions of the plants and their uses with colour photos of most plants.

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Bibliography

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Zostera+marina
This page (US) http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Zostera+marina

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