Biodiversity & Conservation

A red seaweed - Plocamium cartilagineum

Plocamium cartilagineum

Image Keith Hiscock - Plocamium cartilagineum Image width ca 15 cm.
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Distribution map

Plocamium cartilagineum 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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Plocamium cartilagineum is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Rhodophyta Red seaweeds
Class Florideophyceae
Authority (Linnaeus) Dixon
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Widely distributed around Britain and Ireland.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Grows on rocks in shallow water and as an epiphyte on other seaweeds e.g. on the stipe of Laminaria hyperborea.
Text page icon Description A bright scarlet seaweed up to 30 cm in length with branching fronds. The branching occurs alternately along the fronds and becomes more frequent towards the tips. The general appearance of these seaweeds can greatly vary from very compact and closely branched to a much broader appearance with widely separated branching. The tips are incurving and ultimate branching occurs only to one side, giving a distinctive feathery or comb-like appearance.
Identifying features
  • Bright scarlet branching fronds.
  • Branching frequency increasing towards tips, which are incurving giving a feathery or comb-like appearance.
  • Branching on tips to one side only.
Additional information icon Additional information The variety Plocamium cartilagineum uncinatum displays reflexed rather than incurved branching at tips but is less common in British Isles and more frequent in Mediterranean.

This review can be cited as follows:

Jenny Smirthwaite 2006. Plocamium cartilagineum. A red 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=4148>