Lot 5 Pieces Egagropila Poseidonia oceanica Haarballs Sea Marine Plant Algae Seaweed

Only 0.90 Euros per Ball ! Lot 5 Pieces Egagropila cm 3.5-5 Poseidonia oceanica Haarballs Sea Marine Plant Algae Seaweed.

Family: Posidoniacee.
Common name: Sea Marine Haarballs, Aegagropila, Aegagropile, Aegagropilas, Aegagropilae, Eegagropiles, Egagropile, Egagropiles.
Syn. Zostera oceanica, Caulinia oceanica, Taenidium oceanicum, Posidonia caulini, Kernera oceanica.

Posidonia oceanica is an aquatic plant, endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to the Posidoniacee family (monocotyledonous angiosperms).
It has characteristics similar to terrestrial plants, it has roots, a rhizomatous stem and ribbon-like leaves up to one meter long and joined in tufts. It flowers in autumn and in spring it produces floating fruits commonly called "sea olives".
It forms underwater meadows - called Posidonia beds - which have considerable ecological importance, constituting the climax community of the Mediterranean Sea and exercising a notable action in protecting the coastline from erosion. Many animal and plant organisms live inside it and find nourishment and protection in the meadow. Posidonia beds are considered a good bioindicator of the quality of coastal marine waters. They also have considerable importance in carbon sequestration and oxygen release.
The first Posidonia fossils (P. cretacea) date back to the Cretaceous, about 120 million years ago. Linnaeus, in his "Systema Naturae", described the species calling it "Zostera oceanica".
In 1813 the scholar Delile renamed it Posidonia oceanica".
An unmistakable sign of the existence of a Posidonia meadow is the presence of masses of decomposing leaves (called banquettes) on the beach in front. On the coasts, especially in winter, brown "balls" of felt-like consistency are also found, consisting of spherical or oval agglomerates of fibrous Posidonia residues, aggregated by the wave motion and called egagropiles (sing. egagropilo or egagropila).
The formation of egagropiles, commonly known as sea balls, Neptune's balls, sea meatballs, sea potatoes, fruit-fruits or sea kiwis, is the result of the fraying of the fibrous leaf residues that surround the rhizome of the plant and their aggregation by the sea surf.
Similar formations are also produced by the freshwater green alga Aegagropila linnaei, which when It develops into large green spheres with a velvety surface that float on the water surface during the day (thanks to the oxygen developed through photosynthesis) and remain on the bottom at night.