Biodiversity & Conservation

A green seaweed - Cladophora rupestris

Cladophora rupestris

Image Steve Trewhella - Cladophora rupestris. Image width ca 4 cm.
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Distribution map

Cladophora rupestris recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

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Cladophora rupestris is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Chlorophyta Green seaweeds and stoneworts
Class Ulvophyceae
Authority (Linnaeus) Kützing
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Found all round the coast of Britain and Ireland on suitable substrata.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Cladophora rupestris grows in rock pools, on the surface of rocks, hanging in 'ropes' in crevices or forming undergrowth to macroalgae at all levels on the shore.
Text page icon Description Cladophora rupestris is a densely tufted plant, that grows up to 20 cm in height, with dark green or bluish coloured dull fronds. Typical specimens branch profusely upwards from the base, in an irregular, whorled or opposite pattern. The stoutness, density and arrangement of branches gives the seaweed a coarse feel.
Identifying features
  • Plants grow up to 15-20 cm in height.
  • Dark green or bluish in colour.
  • Coarse texture, rather like rope.
  • Basal plate of rhizoids give rise to numerous erect fronds.
  • Fronds (thalli) straight or slightly curved outwards.
  • Thallus is a uniseriate (constructed of cells in a single row) usually highly branched filament of cells, whose cells decrease in size from base to apex.
Additional information icon Additional information The morphology of the species is fairly constant over a wide range of habitat conditions and over a wide geographical area. Its morphology is affected by physical damage due to grazing by animals and loss of the apical region on reproduction, both instances are followed by regeneration and proliferation of branches. Cladophora rupestris sometimes forms an almost complete cover of stunted growth at high tide level and occasionally in the splash zone where pools are brackish. Filaments are short and branching dense in the most wave exposed locations (Burrows, 1991).

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This review can be cited as follows:

Georgina Budd 2007. Cladophora rupestris. 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 03/09/2010]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=2999>