Biodiversity & Conservation

Gut weed - Ulva intestinalis - General information

Ulva intestinalis

Image Steve Trewhella - Ulva intestinalis. Image width ca 4 cm.
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Distribution map

Ulva intestinalis 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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Ulva intestinalis is not listed under any importance categories.

General information

Key Icon Researched by: Georgina Budd and Paolo Pizzola Text page icon Refereed by: This information is not refereed.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy

Phylum Chlorophyta Green seaweeds and stoneworts
Class Chlorophyta Green seaweeds and stoneworts
Map icon Recorded distribution in Britain and Ireland Common all round the coasts of Britain and Ireland.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Occurs in a wide range of habitats on all levels of the shore. Where suitable support is available, it will grow on rocks, mud, sand and in rock pools. It is abundant in brackish water areas, where there is appreciable fresh water run off and in wet areas of the splash zone. It is also a common epiphyte on other algae and shells. The seaweed may become detached from the substratum, and buoyed up by gas, rises to the surface, where it continues to grow in floating masses.
Text page icon Description Ulva intestinalis is a conspicuous bright grass-green seaweed, consisting of inflated irregularly constricted, tubular fronds that grow from a small discoid base. Fronds are typically unbranched. Fronds may be 10-30 cm or more in length and 6-18 mm in diameter, the tips of which are usually rounded. Like other members of the genus, Ulva intestinalis is a summer annual, decaying and forming masses of bleached white fronds towards the end of the season.

This review can be cited as follows:

Georgina Budd and Paolo Pizzola 2008. Ulva intestinalis. Gut weed. 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=4540>