Biodiversity & Conservation

Hornwrack - Flustra foliacea - General information

Flustra foliacea

Image Keith Hiscock - Flustra foliacea. Image width ca 12 cm.
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Distribution map

Flustra foliacea recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Why do the maps differ?

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Flustra foliacea is not listed under any importance categories.

General information

Key Icon Researched by: Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters and Susie Ballerstedt Text page icon Refereed by: Dr Joanne Porter

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy

Phylum Bryozoa Sea mats, horn wrack & lace corals
Class Gymnolaemata
Map icon Recorded distribution in Britain and Ireland Common on all rocky coasts of Britain and Ireland.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Found on coarse sediment and rocky substrate in the shallow sublittoral, where it favours current-swept rocky grounds.
Text page icon Description Flustra foliacea forms a stiff but flexible bushy clump 6 -10 cm high, occasionally up to 20cm high. Flustra foliacea is much divided into fronds that are usually broadly lobed, occasionally strap-like, and made up of zooids (individuals) on both sides (bilaminar). Fronds are light grey to brown in colour. Zooids are tongue shaped, 0.4 mm long and 0.2 - 0.28 mm wide. They bear 4 to 5 marginal club-like spines at the broad (distal) end of each zooid. The fronds have a distinct smell of lemons when freshly collected. Hornwrack is sometimes found washed ashore after storms.

This review can be cited as follows:

Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters and Susie Ballerstedt 2007. Flustra foliacea. Hornwrack. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 19/06/2013]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesfullreview.php?speciesID=3342>