Biodiversity & Conservation

Coral weed - Corallina officinalis

Corallina officinalis

Image Peter Barfield - Close up of Corallina officinalis.
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Distribution map

Corallina officinalis recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

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Corallina officinalis is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Rhodophyta Red seaweeds
Class Florideophyceae
Authority Linnaeus 1758
Recent synonyms Corallina officinalis var. flabellifera
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Generally distributed around all shores of the British Isles.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Typically forms a turf in pools and wet gullies from the mid tidal level to the sublittoral fringe. A characteristic algae of rock pools on the middle to lower shore. Occurs as scattered clumps in the sublittoral down to 18 m although it has been recorded down to 29 m in continental Europe. It often flourishes in exposed conditions. Occasionally found on mollusc shells or macroalgae such as Furcellaria.
Text page icon Description Corallina officinalis consists of calcareous, branching, segmented fronds, usually erect, up to 12 cm high but often much shorter. Fronds rise from a calcareous crustose, disk shaped, holdfast about 70 mm in diameter. Fronds consist of a jointed chain of calcareous segments, each becoming wedge shaped higher up the frond. Branches are opposite, resulting in a feather-like appearance. Colour varied, purple, red, pink or yellowish with white knuckles and white extremities. Paler in brightly lit sites. Different colours normally represent light induced stress and degradation of pigments (bleaching). Reproductive organs are urn shaped, usually borne at the tips of the fronds but occasionally laterally on segments. Distinguished from the similar Corallina elongata by the structure of its reproductive bodies which bear horns or antennae and from Jania rubens which branches dichotomously.
Identifying features
  • Erect stiff, articulated fronds, coarse to the touch.
  • Purple, reddish, pink or yellowish in colour.
  • Branching opposite (pinnate).
  • Disc shaped holdfast.
  • Reproductive organs urn shaped.
Additional information icon Additional information Also known as 'Cunach Tra' or 'An Fheamainn Choirealach' in Ireland. Growth form can be variable, for example:
  • stunted specimens occur in high shore pools
  • much branched forms in the lower littoral
  • thick elongate forms in sublittoral
In Norway fronds 1-2 cm long recorded in lower littoral in contrast to 10-17 cm long fronds in pools. This variability has resulted in numerous species descriptions that are probably synonymous with Corallina officinalis (Irvine & Chamberlain 1994).

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This review can be cited as follows:

Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters 2008. Corallina officinalis. Coral weed. 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=3039>