beaked ditchgrass

Ruppia maritima is a freshwater aquatic plant that can tolerate salt. It is commonly known as beaked ditchgrass, beaked tasselweed, ditch grass, tassel pondweed, and widgeon grass. The species was first described by Linnaeus in 1753. It is distributed across North America, including Labrador, Newfoundland, British Columbia, and other Canadian provinces, as well as in Açores, Madeira, Portugal, and other regions in the Afrotropical and Australasian realms. The genus Ruppia honors the German botanist Heinrich Bernhard Ruppius, while the specific name maritima refers to its coastal or brackish habitat, though it is not a marine species.