''Ulva intestinalis'' is a green alga in the family Ulvaceae, known by the common names sea lettuce, green bait weed, gutweed and grass kelp. Until they were reclassified by genetic work completed in the early 2000s, the tubular members of the sea lettuce genus ''Ulva'' were placed in the genus ''Enteromorpha''.Guiry, M.D., John, D.M., Rindi, F. and McCarthy, T.K. (Eds) 2007. ''New Survey of Clare Island. Volume 6: The Freshwater and Terrestrial Algae.'' p. 23. Royal Irish Academy.

Distribution

Generally world-wide.Burrows, E.M. 1991. ''Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 2 Chlorophyta''. British Museum (Natural History). It can be found in

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

near Alaska, Aleutian islands, Puget Sound,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, and Russia. Besides this, places it can be found in Israel, and in such European countries as Azores, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Poland, and in such seas as the Baltic, and Mediterranean Sea. It is also found in the shores of the Pacific Ocean including in New Zealand.

Description

The fronds have branches and are completely tubular expanding in width to mid-thallus, reaching 15 cm long or more. The cells are irregularly arranged and the chloroplast is hood-shaped and placed to one side, generally with only one pyrenoid. The species may be long and wide. They have rounded tips as well. The alga may be reproductive at all times of the year, and has a life-cycle with

alternation of generations Alternation of generations (also known as metagenesis or heterogenesis) is the predominant type of Biological life cycle, life cycle in plants and algae. It consists of a Multicellular organism, multicellular haploid sexual phase, the gametophy ...

, in which the gametophyte and

sporophyte A sporophyte () is the diploid multicellular stage in the life cycle of a plant or alga which produces asexual spores. This stage alternates with a multicellular haploid gametophyte phase. Life cycle The sporophyte develops from the zygote pr ...

are isomorphic, having identical morphology. In some references the species (''Ulva intestinalis'') is treated as two subspecies: ssp. ''intestinalis'' (L.) Link and ssp. ''compressa'' (L.) Link.Morton, O. 1994. ''Marine Algae of Northern Ireland.'' Ulster Museum

In other languages

* da, tarm-rørhinde * nl, echt darmwier *french: entéromorphe *german: Darmtang, gemeiner Darmtang * no, tarmgrønske * pl, sałata, taśma, watka * sv, tarmalg * th, สาหร่ายไส้ไก่ * pt, erva-patinha

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2708229 Ulvaceae Edible seaweeds Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus