Prasiola calophylla (Carmichael ex Greville) Kützing
Common names: None known.
Description: Small (10-20 mm long and 2-300
µm broad), ribbon-like fronds when wet (below), often
expanding to form V-shaped, recurved fronds, shiny and adherent
to surfaces when dry. Most common in spring and early summer;
apparently surviving as basal fragments and regrowing in the
following winter. However, in shaded situations, plants can be
common in summer. Generally forming an irregular sward.
Habitat: On concrete and paving stones at
corners where dogs urinate on upright posts and walls. Strictly
speaking, this is a terrestrial species but it commonly occurs
in maritime situations.
Key characteristics:
unusual habitat and ribbon-like fronds.
Distribution: common on Atlantic coasts in the
colder waters of the NE Atlantic south to N Spain. More recently
reported from continental cities such as Innsbruck in Austria.
Also reported from the Antarctic.
Note: This species was originally discovered,
by Captain Carmichael, on a "stone" outside a
Clergyman's door on the island of Lismore in Scotland; there was
undoubtedly a household dog intent on marking his territory.
Recently, and unsurprisingly, a mycosporin-like amino acid
called prasiolin and involved in UV-protection has been
discovered in this species.
Photographs: Galway, top two © M.D. Guiry; Cornwall, lower
two © David Fenwick, Snr.
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