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Rhodophycota Red seaweeds e.g. carragheen, laver, coral weed & maerl
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Rhodophyceae
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Patchily distributed along the exposed western coasts of the southern British Isles. Locations include the west and south-west of Ireland, the south-west corner of Wales and a few sites off the south coast of England.
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Typically found at less than 20 m depth on sand, mud or gravel substrata in areas that are protected from strong wave action but have moderate to high water flow. Usually found as unattached plants forming beds of coralline algal gravel (maerl) in the sublittoral and occasionally lower littoral. The crustose form is very rare in the British Isles. Typically found together with %Phymatolithon calcareum%.
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An unattached, fragile, alga with a calcareous skeleton. It is very similar to and often confused with %Phymatolithon calcareum%. Its form is very variable but it commonly occurs as highly branched nodules forming a 3-D lattice. Individual plants may reach 4 - 5 cm across and are bright pink in colour when alive but white when dead.
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