Biodiversity & Conservation

A red seaweed - Plumaria plumosa

A red seaweed

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Distribution map

Plumaria plumosa recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

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Plumaria plumosa is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Rhodophyta Red seaweeds
Class Florideophyceae
Authority (Hudson) Kuntze
Recent synonyms Plumaria elegans
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Common throughout the British Isles, with only a limited distribution in the southeast of England and absent from the northeast of Ireland.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Grows on shaded areas of the lower littoral rocky shore, particularly on vertical rocks and overhangs.
Text page icon Description Plumaria plumosa is a dull red to brownish-purple seaweed, 5-10 cm long, it is soft and flaccid and has many branches which become tatty in older plants. This perennial plant is monosiphonous throughout and its fronds branch irregularly from the base in one plane. The thallus is compressed, and the branches are all delicately plumose.
Identifying features
  • Delicate plumose branches.
  • Thallus is compressed.
  • Fronds branch irregularly from the base, in one plane.
Additional information icon Additional information Plumaria plumosa is frequently confused with Ptilota plumosa . However, Plumaria plumosa can be identified by the penultimate branchlets which lack an outer covering (uncorticated) and are translucent, with the main axes having a spongy mat surface. Plumaria plumosa reproduces in the south of England during winter, and is fertile in spring and summer in more northerly latitudes.

This review can be cited as follows:

Rose Edwards 2003. Plumaria plumosa. 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=4150>