''Halophila baillonis'' is a species of

aquatic plant Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and Non-vascular plant, non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic ecosystem, aquatic environments (marine ecosystem, saltwater or freshwater ecosystem, freshwater ...

in the family

Hydrocharitaceae Hydrocharitaceae is a flowering plant family which includes 14 accepted genera and a total of ca 135 known species (Christenhusz & Byng 2016). The family holds a number of species of aquatic plants, including tape-grass, the well-known Canadian ...

. It is referred to by the common name clover grass. It is native to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory, and the largest by population. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located so ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Leeward Islands The Leeward Islands () are a group of islands situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. Starting with the Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, they extend southeast to Guadeloupe and its dependencies. In Engl ...

Netherlands Antilles The Netherlands Antilles (, ; ), also known as the Dutch Antilles, was a constituent Caribbean country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the islands of Saba (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten in the Lesser Antilles, ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. It is listed on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

as " vulnerable" due to its naturally rare occurrence and fragmented populations.

Description

This seagrass has fragile

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

s with a single stem and a single root at each node. The shoots are erect and up to long, each with two obovate, keeled, scales in the central portion and a pseudo-whirl of four leaves at the tip. The leaf-blades are oblong to lanceolate, long by wide, with pronounced midribs and fine marginal serrations. There may be as many as 2,500 shoots per square metre.

Distribution and habitat

Clover grass is native to the Caribbean area. It is known from several sites in the

Greater Antilles The Greater Antilles is a grouping of the larger islands in the Caribbean Sea, including Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, together with Navassa Island and the Cayman Islands. Seven island states share the region of the Greater Antille ...

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

and

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

, but its distribution is very patchy. It was previously known from

Guanacaste Province Guanacaste () is a Provinces of Costa Rica, province of Costa Rica located in the northwestern region of the country, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Alajuela Province to the east, and Puntarenas Pro ...

on the Pacific coast of

, but has not been seen there since a severe storm in 1996 and is not known from elsewhere in the Pacific. It grows on sandy or muddy bottoms and its depth range is down to about . In 2015 it was found on the coast of Brazil in the state of

Paraíba Paraíba ( , ; ) is a states of Brazil, state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and it is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Paraíba i ...

on a sheltered bar at the mouth of the

Mamanguape River The Mamanguape River is a river in the Paraíba state, Northeastern Brazil. Part of the river basin is in the Guaribas Biological Reserve, a fully protected conservation unit created in 1990. See also *List of rivers of Paraíba List of rivers ...

Ecology

Where it is plentiful, as in Belize, it is sometimes found growing among the prop roots of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s, intermingled with ''

Thalassia testudinum ''Thalassia testudinum'', commonly known as turtlegrass, is a species of Marine (ocean), marine seagrass in the family Hydrocharitaceae. It forms meadows in shallow sandy or muddy locations in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Turtle gras ...

'', ''

Halophila decipiens ''Halophila decipiens'', commonly known as Caribbean seagrass or paddle grass, is a seagrass in the family Hydrocharitaceae. It grows underwater on sandy or muddy sea floors in shallow parts of tropical seas. Description '' Halophila'' is the o ...

'', ''

Halodule wrightii ''Halodule wrightii'' is an aquatic plant in the Cymodoceaceae family. It is referred to by the common names shoal grass or shoalweed, and is a plant species native to seacoasts of some of the warmer oceans of the world. ''H. wrightii'' is an he ...

'' and ''

Caulerpa ''Caulerpa'' is a genus of seaweeds in the family Caulerpaceae (among the green algae). They are unusual because they consist of only one cell with many cell nucleus, nuclei, making them among the biggest single cells in the world. Referring to ...

'' spp.. It provides food for the

West Indian manatee The West Indian manatee (''Trichechus manatus''), also known as the North American manatee, is a large, aquatic mammal native to warm coastal areas of the Caribbean, from the Eastern United States to northern Brazil. Living alone or in herds, it ...

and concealment for young

nurse sharks The Ginglymostomatidae are a cosmopolitan family of carpet sharks known as nurse sharks, containing four species in three genera. Common in shallow, tropical and subtropical waters, these sharks are sluggish and docile bottom-dwellers. They are ...

. The scorched mussel lives in the

seagrass meadow A seagrass meadow or seagrass bed is an underwater ecosystem formed by seagrasses. Seagrasses are marine (saltwater) plants found in shallow coastal waters and in the brackish waters of estuaries. Seagrasses are flowering plants with stems and ...

s and fish such as the flag-fin mojarra and the permit feed on the mussels and consume the seagrass while doing so.

Status

This is a rare species of sea grass with a very fragmented distribution. Its greatest abundance is in the Placencia Lagoon in Belize, where it grows in dense monospecific stands. In several places, such as in Colombia and Puerto Rico, its presence has been confirmed in the past but it has not been found recently. Its total population seems to be in decline; its total area of occupancy is about and it is known from about seven locations. For these reasons, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

has assessed its conservation status as being " vulnerable".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15555424 baillonis Flora of the Caribbean Taxa named by Paul Friedrich August Ascherson Flora of Brazil Flora of the Cayman Islands Flora of Colombia Flora of Costa Rica Flora of the Dutch Caribbean Flora of Jamaica Flora of the Leeward Islands Flora of the Netherlands Antilles Flora of Panama Flora of Puerto Rico Flora of Trinidad and Tobago Flora of Venezuela Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN