''Plocamium cartilagineum'' is a medium-sized red marine alga.

Description

''Plocamium cartilagineum'' is an erect red alga growing to 10 cm in length. The main axes is flattened with regular flattened branches on both sides. The branches are long and short alternately, the short ones on one side are opposite the longer on the other side. These longer branches bear two or three short curved branches in series, comb-like. The plants are fully corticated. This branching pattern is similar to '' Plocamium lyngyanum'' and ''

Plocamium maggsiae ''Plocamium'' is a genus of red algae in the family Plocamiaceae. It contains around 40 species and has a cosmopolitan distribution in temperate seas, although it is most diverse in the southern hemisphere. ''Plocamium'' has erect elliptical ...

'' the other European species which have only recently been distinguished.Bunker, F.StP.D., Brodie, J.A., Maggs, C.A. and Bunker, A.R. 2017 ''Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland''. Second Edition. Wild Nature Press, Plymouth, UK

Habitat

Common on rock in the lower

littoral The littoral zone 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 inundated), to coastal areas ...

and deeper to 30.Hardy, F.G. and Guiry, M.D. 2003 ''A Check-list and Atlas of Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland.'' The British Phycological Society

Reproduction

The plants are

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

. The male structures are microscopic. The female

cystocarp A cystocarp is the fruiting structure produced in the red algae after fertilization, especially such a structure having a special protective envelope (as in ''Polysiphonia)''. The structure from which carpospore A carpospore is a diploid spore prod ...

s grow to 1 mm in diameter and are on the margins of the frond. The

spermatangia A gametangium (plural: gametangia) is an organ or cell in which gametes are produced that is found in many multicellular protists, algae, fungi, and the gametophytes of plants. In contrast to gametogenesis in animals, a gametangium is a haploid ...

are within the youngest branches in sori. The

tetrasporangia Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta also comprises one of the largest phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 currently recognized species with taxonomic revisions ongoing. The majority ...

are microscopic.

Distribution

Common all around the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the 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 and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

including

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

and

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

.Faeroes and Norway to Senegal, Mediterranean and Canary Isles.Dixon, P.S. and Irvine, L.M. 1977. ''Seaweeds of the British Isles Volume 1 Rhodophyta Part 1 Introduction, Nemaliales, Gigartinales'' British Museum (Natural History)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21344680 Florideophyceae