Erythroglossum laciniatum (Lightfoot) Maggs et Hommersand

Also known as Polyneura laciniata (Lightfoot) P.S. Dixon and Polyneura gmelinii (Greville) Kylin
Description: Crisp, rather rigid, flattened, fan-shaped, dark purplish red fronds, sometimes with blue iridescence underwater, entire to deeply cleft into wedge- or ribbon-shaped segments, to 300 mm long. Stipe to 25 mm long, from discoid base. Venation palmate, with no distinct midrib, veins anstomosing, microscopic veins present in young parts. Polystromatic in older parts, monostromatic distally.
Habitat: On rocks and epiphytic, deep lower intertidal pools and rocks, and subtidal to 30 m where it is a frequent component of the Laminaria hyperborea understorey vegetation; southern and western shores east to Kent and north to Ross and Cromarty and widely distributed in Ireland except the east coast, often frequent subtidally.

Erythroglossum laciniatum

Top photograph: East of the Skerries, Portrush, Co. Antrim, Ireland; August 2013 © Francis Bunker.

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