bio

Seagrass

Flowering plants living fully submerged in shallow seawater — *Zostera*, *Posidonia* and their submarine meadows. They are not algae and not seaweed: they have roots, veins and flowers, and their ancestors lived on land. The return to the sea happened three or four separate times, and the cost left clear traces: they lost their stomata entirely, retained extensive internal air channels, and gave up airborne pollen for pollen that drifts in water — a solution so unusual it was doubted for years. Seagrasses are the standard example of reading a lineage from what it has broken.