Biodiversity & Conservation

Coral weed - Corallina officinalis - General information

Corallina officinalis

Image Judith Oakley - Corallina officinalis in a rockpool. Image width ca XX cm.
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Distribution map

Corallina officinalis recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Why do the maps differ?

Sightings Have you seen Corallina officinalis?
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Corallina officinalis is not listed under any importance categories.

General information

Key Icon Researched by: Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters Text page icon Refereed by: Dr Thomas Wiedemann

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy

Phylum Rhodophyta Red seaweeds
Class Rhodophyta Red seaweeds
Map icon Recorded distribution in Britain and Ireland Generally distributed around all shores of the British Isles.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Typically forms a turf in pools and wet gullies from the mid tidal level to the sublittoral fringe. A characteristic algae of rock pools on the middle to lower shore. Occurs as scattered clumps in the sublittoral down to 18 m although it has been recorded down to 29 m in continental Europe. It often flourishes in exposed conditions. Occasionally found on mollusc shells or macroalgae such as Furcellaria.
Text page icon Description Corallina officinalis consists of calcareous, branching, segmented fronds, usually erect, up to 12 cm high but often much shorter. Fronds rise from a calcareous crustose, disk shaped, holdfast about 70 mm in diameter. Fronds consist of a jointed chain of calcareous segments, each becoming wedge shaped higher up the frond. Branches are opposite, resulting in a feather-like appearance. Colour varied, purple, red, pink or yellowish with white knuckles and white extremities. Paler in brightly lit sites. Different colours normally represent light induced stress and degradation of pigments (bleaching). Reproductive organs are urn shaped, usually borne at the tips of the fronds but occasionally laterally on segments. Distinguished from the similar Corallina elongata by the structure of its reproductive bodies which bear horns or antennae and from Jania rubens which branches dichotomously.

This review can be cited as follows:

Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters 2008. Corallina officinalis. Coral weed. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 25/05/2013]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesfullreview.php?speciesID=3039>