[3] It is referred to by the common names shoal grass or shoalweed, and is a plant species native to seacoasts of some of the warmer oceans of the world.

[14] It has been reported from Texas,[16] Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, Maryland,[10][17] Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Tabasco,[18][19][20] Costa Rica,[21] Belize,[22] Panama, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Brazil and Cape Verde.

Recreational activities, like jet skiing and boating, damage and uproot seagrass beds with ease in shallow coastal waters.

Studies such as the one performed in Brazil's Abrolhos Marine National Park tested the direct effects of anchor damage caused by intense boating activity, and found that H. wrightii abundance was deeply impacted.

[28] One such experiment in Florida attempted to use H. wrightii as a pioneer species to stimulate natural succession to the eventual climax vegetation dominated by Thalassia testudinum.