Observations on the female flowers and fruiting of Tape Grass Enhalus acoroides from South Andaman Islands, India

Abstract

Documenting phenologic events is crucial in obtaining deeper insights into the life cycle of seagrasses.  We documented and compared the flowering and fruiting of the seagrass Enhalus acoroides from multispecies seagrass meadows at two sites, Henry Lawrence and Tarmugli islands located inside the marine national parks in South Andaman Islands.  At these two locations, the average density of shoots ranged between 30.9/m² and 18.16/m², fruits between 5/m² and 2.33/m², and flowers between 6.7/m² and 3.83/m², whereas the mean length of the peduncles ranged from 40.59cm at Henry Lawrence to 32.44cm at Tarmugli Island.  We observed significant differences between the densities of shoots and fruits and peduncle lengths in the two sites.  The density of flowers, however, did not vary significantly.  These observations of fruiting and flowering in E. acoroides establish an important reproductive stage in the life cycle of the species and open avenues for further seagrass research in the Andaman Islands.  We describe the findings and emphasize on the need to establish a long-term phenology monitoring program for E. acoroides in the Andaman Archipelago.