Ruppia brachypus J.Gay Ruppia maritima is an aquatic plant species commonly known as beaked tasselweed, beaked ditchgrass,[citation needed] ditch grass, tassel pondweed and widgeon grass.

It can be found throughout the world, most often in coastal areas, where it grows in brackish water bodies, such as marshes.

[4] Ruppia maritima is a thread-thin, grasslike annual or perennial[3] herb which grows from a rhizome anchored shallowly in the wet substrate.

It produces a long, narrow, straight or loosely coiled inflorescence tipped with two tiny flowers.

[9] This plant and the epiphytic algae attached to the floating leaves can be an important part of the diet for selected herbivorous waterfowl species, but not important for predatory waterfowl that eat fish or invertebrate animals.