Biodiversity & Conservation

Sea lace or Dead man's rope - Chorda filum

Chorda filum

Image Keith Hiscock - Chorda filum. Image width ca 50 cm in foreground.
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Distribution map

Chorda filum recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

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Chorda filum is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Ochrophyta Brown and yellow-green seaweeds
Class Phaeophyceae
Authority (L.) Stackhouse, 1797
Recent synonyms Chorda filum var thrix
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland All coasts of Britain and Ireland, but rarer in south east England.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Found in rock pools on the low shore and in the sublittoral down to 5 m. It is most commonly found in sheltered bays attached to stones and shells, often with the holdfast buried in sand.
Text page icon Description Chorda filum is a brown seaweed with long cord-like fronds, only 5 mm thick in diameter. The fronds are hollow, slippery, unbranched and grow up to 8 m long. The species attaches to the substratum using a small discoid holdfast. It is an annual species, disappearing in winter.
Identifying features
  • Frond round in section, cord-like and unbranched.
  • Attached by a tiny disc-like holdfast.
  • Slimy texture.
  • Colourless short hairs on frond in summer.
Additional information icon Additional information Other common names include mermaid's tresses and cat gut.

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This review can be cited as follows:

Nicola White 2006. Chorda filum. Sea lace or Dead man's rope. 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=2974>