Biodiversity & Conservation

Dulse - Palmaria palmata

Palmaria palmata

Image Keith Hiscock - Palmaria palmata fronds on lower eulittoral rock. Image width ca 15 cm.
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Distribution map

Palmaria palmata 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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Palmaria palmata is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Rhodophyta Red seaweeds
Class Florideophyceae
Authority (Linnaeus) Kuntze
Recent synonyms None/85
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Generally distributed throughout Britain and Ireland, but apparently absent from significant stretches of coast in eastern England.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Epilithic and epiphytic, especially on Laminaria hyperborea stipes. Littoral and sublittoral to a depth of 20 m in both sheltered and moderately exposed areas.
Text page icon Description A foliose red algae with a tough flat frond usually between 20 and 50 cm in length, but sometimes up to 1m. The algae grows directly from a small discoid holdfast gradually widening and subdividing. The stipe is inconspicuous, rarely to 5 mm long. Older parts may have small 'leaflets' along the margin especially where damaged. Dark red, with purple tints under water.
Identifying features
  • Blade leathery-membranous without midrib, the total length usually between 20 cm and 50c m long, but sometimes up to 1 m. Blade width about 3-8 cm rarely up to 16 cm.
  • Fronds solitary or a few together, simple below or branching from the base, stipe inconspicuous, blade gradually expanding above, dichotomously or palmately divided into broad segments. Blade sometimes simple, with marginal proliferations often dichotomous and large, resembling primary blade.
  • Thallus with a discoid holdfast and erect fronds, purplish red in colour.
Additional information icon Additional information Sometimes the blade divisions are wedge-shaped and finely dissected above or the blade has numerous linear divisions throughout. This phenomenon seems to occur under fairly sheltered, silty conditions. Such plants are difficult to identify without examining the anatomical structure and the cortical cells in surface view, and have been confused with Callophyllis cristata (L. ex Turn.) Kütz. and Gracilaria foliifera (Forsk.) Børk (Irvine, 1983). Palmaria palmata has a multiaxial, pseudoparenchymatous construction and, in section, can be seen to consist of a large-celled medulla bounded on each side by a small-celled cortex.

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This review can be cited as follows:

Jacqueline Hill 2008. Palmaria palmata. Dulse. 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=4028>