Nitophyllum punctatum (Stackhouse) Greville
Description: Delicate membranous, rose-pink
fronds with an elongate fan-shaped outline, edges often distinctly
frilly, to 40 (exceptionally)1000 mm long, occasionally to 1 m,
sessile or shortly stipitate (< 2 mm long). Frond veinless,
undivided or deeply subdichotomously divided to the base; apices
blunt or rounded, often ribbon-like. Gametophyte plants form
rounded spots to nn mm in diameter whilst tetrasporphyte plants
form characteristinc elongated spots
Habitat: Annual intertidal pools in winter and
early spring and in the subtidal (15 m) on cobble or other
mobile surfaces and on bedrock in the lower parts of kelp
forests from spring to mid-or late summer; widely distributed,
frequent. Most obvious in spring and early summer.
Similar species: Similarly delicate
Porphyra
and Pyropia species occur mainly in the intertidal but are more gelatinous
to the touch and do not form well-defined rounded or elongated
spots; Halarachnion ligulatum is less translucent, and is less
delicate and not frilly; Haraldiophyllum grevillei is
generally clearly stalked has reproductive sori that are rounded
rather than elongated.
Distribution: widely distributed, most common
in spring.
Key characteristics: Delicate, veinless,
tanslucent fronds with and elongated fan shape and with elongate
or rounded spots (reproductive sori) scattered regularly on most
plants. Extremely large plants (to 1 m long) have been known for
many years from NE Ireland; there is no explanation for this
phenomenon.
Picture © Bernard Picton, Ulster Museum
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