Scientific name: Ruppia cirrhosa (Petagna) Grande
Common name: Spiral Tasselweed
Description
Habit: Aquatic submerged perennials with leafy slender stems.
Leaves: Leaves alternate, or the involucral subopposite, minutely denticulate at the apex, otherwise entire, up to 1.4mm wide, usually obtuse to rounded; sheaths of involucral leaves usually conspicuously inflated. Similar to R. maritima but with the sheath at the base of the leaves swollen.
Flowers: Peduncles more than 8cm; flowers arranged one above the other on opposite sides of the rhachis; sometimes more than 4 carpels in each flower, with a sessile, peltate stigma; anthers greater than 1mm, kidney-shaped; stamens with a small dorsal appendage at the base.
Fruits: Peduncles spiral in fruit; drupelets 2.7-3.4mm (excluding stalk), pear-shaped.
Habitat: Tidal mudflats and brackish pools and ditches.
Distribution: Rare, mainly in the North-east and South-east.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No