The family includes five genera, totaling 17 species [3] occurring in tropical seas and oceans (so-called seagrasses).

Amphibolis Thalassodendron Cymodocea Syringodium Halodule Its fossil record shows that Cymodoceaceae was established in its current Indo-West Pacific distribution by the early Eocene and perhaps even during the late Paleocene.

[citation needed] Cymodoceaceae is one of four families to have developed filamentous pollen, along with Ruppiaceae, Zosteraceae, and Posidonaceae.

[7] The pollen is assembled as long and thin grains rather than spheres, which increases its surface area when floating on the water.

[8] Amphibolis and Thalassodendron have pollen that is carried up to and then released upon the surface of the water by abscisent male flowers.

Syringodium has pollen grains that are approximately the same density as seawater and form small clumps which move beneath the surface by submarine currents to the stigmas of female flowers.