Schottera nicaeënsis (J.V. Lamouroux ex Duby) Guiry & Hollenberg
Description: Plants to 60 mm long and 10 mm
wide arising from creeping stolons via a short stipe that
quickly expans to form flat papery, once or twice widely
bifurcating, thin blades. Older plants form apical tendrils in
August and September that reattach and form new soloniferous
growths from which new blade start to arise the following year,
generally in January. Reproduction is very uncommon and only
terasporangial plants have been found on a single occasion in
Britain in January; tetrasporangial sori are formed in catenate
series on the surface of new blades less than 10 mm in
length.
Habitat: Epilithic in lower intertidal rock
pools and in the subtidal to 15 m, often ramifying in sponges
such as Halichondria.
Distribution: Generally of western distribution
in Britain and Ireland, from Shetland to Scilly Isles, and
Channel Islands. Europe: Mediterranean, Portugal, Spain and
France. Perhaphs intoduced into Chile, South and south-west
Africa and Australia, although reports may represent other
species of the genus; Mediterranean and Atlantic populations are
also likely to represent two separate species. Surprisingly
common in the subtidal in some areas such as North Devon and the
south and north-east coasts of Ireland.
Similar Species:
Phyllophora sicula;
Rhodymenia pseudopalmata; Stennogramma interruptum.
Photographs: top: Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. 20 m depth. 7 June 2006, Northern Ireland © Bernard Picton, Ulster Museum; bottom: East of the Skerries, Portrush, Co. Antrim, Ireland; August 2013 © Francis Bunker
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