''Fucus spiralis'' is a species of

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), '' Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

, a

brown alga Brown algae (: alga) are a large group of multicellular algae comprising the class Phaeophyceae. They include many seaweeds located in colder waters of the Northern Hemisphere. Brown algae are the major seaweeds of the temperate and polar reg ...

(Heterokontophyta, Phaeophyceae), living on the

littoral The littoral zone, also called litoral or nearshore, is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely i ...

shore of the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

coasts of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. It has the common names of spiral wrack and flat wrack.

Description

''Fucus spiralis'' is olive brown in colour and similar to ''

Fucus vesiculosus ''Fucus vesiculosus'', known by the common names bladderwrack, black tang, rockweed, sea grapes, bladder fucus, sea oak, cut weed, dyers fucus, red fucus and rock wrack, is a seaweed found on the coasts of the North Sea, the western Baltic Sea ...

'' and '' Fucus serratus''. It grows to about 30 cm long and branches somewhat irregularly

dichotomous A dichotomy () is a partition of a set, partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be * jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and * mutually exclusive: nothi ...

and is attached, generally to rock, by a discoid holdfast. The flattened blade has a distinct mid-rib and is usually spirally twisted without a serrated edge, as in ''Fucus serratus'', and it does not show air-vesicles, as ''Fucus vesiculosus''.Newton, L. 1931. ''A Handbook of the British Seaweeds.'' British Museum, Natural History, LondonTaylor, W.R. 1972. ''Marine Algae of the Northeastern Coast of North America.'' Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press

Life history

The reproductive bodies form rounded swollen tips on the branches, usually in pairs. In the conceptacles oögonia and antheridia are produced after

meiosis Meiosis () is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, the sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately result in four cells, each with only one c ...

and then released. Fertilisation follows and the

zygote A zygote (; , ) is a eukaryote, eukaryotic cell (biology), cell formed by a fertilization event between two gametes. The zygote's genome is a combination of the DNA in each gamete, and contains all of the genetic information of a new individ ...

develops directly into the

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, ...

sporophyte A sporophyte () is one of the two alternation of generations, alternating multicellular organism, multicellular phases in the biological life cycle, life cycles of plants and algae. It is a diploid multicellular organism which produces asexual Spo ...

plant.

Ecology

The other common species of ''

Fucus ''Fucus'' is a genus of brown algae found in the intertidal zones of rocky seashores almost throughout the world. Description and life cycle The thallus is perennial with an irregular or disc-shaped holdfast or with haptera. The erect portion ...

'' on the coasts of

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

: ''Fucus spiralis'', ''Fucus vesiculosus'' and ''Fucus serratus'' along with '' Ascophyllum nodosum'' form the main and dominant seaweeds on rocky shores. These three species, along with two others '' Pelvetia canaliculata'' and ''Ascophyllum nodosum'' form the zones along the shore.Lewis, J.R. 1964. ''The Ecology of Rocky Shores.'' The English Universities Press.

Distribution

''F. spiralis'' is common on the coasts all around the

,Hardy, G. and Guiry, M.D. 2003. ''A Check-list and Atlas of the Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland.'' British Phycological Society western coasts of

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

and North-eastern America. Fucus spiralis Spiral Wrack

Chemistry

''Fucus spiralis'' produces phlorotannins of both the fucol and fucophlorethol types.Co-occurrence and antioxidant activities of fucol and fucophlorethol classes of polymeric phenols in Fucus spiralis. Cérantola Stéphane, Breton Florian, Ar Gall Erwan and Deslandes Eric, Botanica Marina., Volume 49, Issue 4, Pages 347–351,

References