Biodiversity & Conservation

A green seaweed - Blidingia minima

Blidingia minima

Image Robin Harvey - Blidingia minima on an exposed rock.
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Distribution map

Blidingia minima recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

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Blidingia minima is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Chlorophyta Green seaweeds and stoneworts
Class Ulvophyceae
Authority (Nägeli ex Kützing) Kylin
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Found all round the coast of Britain but rarely reported around the north, east and south coast of Ireland.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Found on hard surfaces, including stones, rocks and boulders on the upper shore and in harbours and estuaries. Occasionally found free-floating in sheltered water. Blidingia minima is found in a range of salinities from almost freshwater to sea water and on exposed and sheltered shores. It may occur mixed with other species.
Text page icon Description Blidingia minima consists of fine, branched or unbranched, hollow green tubes, up to 5 cm long. Groups of tubes arise from the raised centre of a small flattened disc-shaped holdfast that is attached to the rock. Plants reproduce throughout the year, reproductive spores arising from the upper layers of the tubes.
Identifying features
  • Fine, green, tubular fronds, up to 5 cm long, branched or unbranched.
  • Attached to rock by raised centre of flattened disc-shaped holdfast.
  • Cells are arranged irregularly and are <10µm in diameter, with stellate chloroplasts.
Additional information icon Additional information Blidingia minima can be confused with Ulva spp., but can be identified by its smaller, more delicate and sometimes branching tubes, the central disc attachment, its microscopic morphology and reproductive processes.

This review can be cited as follows:

Penny Avant 2008. Blidingia minima. A green seaweed. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 09/02/2010]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=2777>