Common names include narrowleaf seagrass in English and a'shab bahriya in Arabic.

[4] This is a common plant of the sublittoral zone in its range, growing in depths up to 20 meters in lagoons, on reefs, and in many other types of marine habitat just offshore.

It is known from Asian waters along the coasts of Japan, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and other nations.

It occurs along the Australian Pacific coast, including the Great Barrier Reef.

It can be found along Indian Ocean coastal regions from Australia to India to eastern Africa.

[1] This species is a flowering plant spreading via a branching rhizome that roots at the nodes.

Plants that receive less light may need more leaf blade area to perform enough photosynthesis.

[7] This grass forms dense carpets or meadows on the substrate, sometimes mixing with other seagrasses and algaes.

In general its populations are stable, though it may be decreasing in localized areas, such as the coast of Bangladesh, and it fluctuates in some Australian waters.

It is affected by some degradation of habitat by forces such as coastal development, siltation, sedimentation, weather events and tidal action, predation, parasites, disease, trawling and other fishing practices, dredging, pollution, eutrophication, and climate change.

Large beds are protected in Hat Chao Mai National Park in Thailand.