Perennial, dioecious seagrass; rhizomes with sympodial branching, brown, terete, gnarled, to diam.; vertical rhizomes rare; roots usually much branched, 2 at the stem-bearing internode (4th), 2 at the preceding internode (3rd), and none at the 1st and 2nd internodes; internodes much condensed (0.5-)1-6 mm. Scales ca. 5 mm, broadly ovate, early deciduous, dark brown; apex obtuse and apiculate; stems erect, 1(2), unbranched or little branched, to 70 cm, 1-2 mm width, with 4 or 5(6) leaves per shoot; leaf sheaths 10-30 x 3-9 mm, cuneate at the base, cream at the base becoming greenish (similar to leaf blade) to the top, with obtuse auricules, caducous, leaving circular scars irregularly spaced, to 10 mm apart; tanniniferous cells usually inconspicuous, margins scarious; ligule obtuse, 0.5-0.75 mm high; leaf blade usually falcate, 3-9 x 0.3-0.7 cm, greenish brown in dried condition; distal margins irregularly serrulate; veins (7)11 to 15(17), united below leaf apex; median and lateral veins slightly prominent; 15 to 23 rows of cells between secondary veins; leaf epidermis cells elongate and rectangular with anticlinal walls sinuous in surface view; leaf apex obtuse, slightly emarginate, denticulate, except at the middle zone; apical teeth to 0.5 mm high, acute or truncate. Squamules in leaf axils in 2 opposite groups of (1)2 to 4 squamules each, of unequal size, the longer about 0.75-2 mm. Male and female flowers solitary on short lateral shoots near the base of leaf clusters. Male flower enclosed in a leafy bract, sessile; anthers ca. 2.5 mm, 2 dorsally connate over entire length and attached at the same height with a short terminal appendage (ca. 0.5 mm), entire. Female flower enclosed in 3 leafy bracts, all differentiated into a sheath and a blade, with a ligule 0.5-0.75 mm; 1st bract outermost with a sheath 13-15 mm, the blade slightly smaller; 2nd bract with a sheath ca. 16-22 mm, the blade slightly shorter or longer; 3rd bract 14-20 mm, the blade equal to or longer, slightly falcate with the apex acute, obscurely veined, somewhat fleshy; ovary ellipsoid, 1.5-2 mm; style divided into 2 stigmatic arms 12-16 mm, strap-shaped. Seedlings viviparous.
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