Orange Seaweed

jdoherty · #1 (**permalink**) 18-11-2007, 05:36 PM

I took this photo on Sunday 18th Nov 2007 along the shore of Belfast Lough at Hazelbank, Newtownabbey, County Antrim. It was in a rockpool at low tide. I hope someone can provide an ID.

Thanks, John.

jdoherty · #2 (**permalink**) 19-12-2007, 03:21 PM

Help still needed with an ID for this orange seaweed please.

Thanks, John.

mrs fish · #3 (**permalink**) 21-12-2007, 06:39 AM

One of the gracilarias maybe?

They grow well on the south coast of England in the warmer waters. I don't know if you took the pic in N Ireland but I expect it will be growing further north now the seas are warming up.

I was also looking at griffithsia flosulosa?

jdoherty · #4 (**permalink**) 25-01-2008, 10:35 PM

The photo was taken in Nov 2007 in Belfast Lough, N.Ireland and was quite common in rock pools at low tide. It's colour was quite distinctive as can be seen from the photo.

Ferret · #5 (**permalink**) 26-01-2008, 12:05 AM

John
First I would like to say that I am not an expert on seaweeds but I was intrigued buy your photo and wanted to know what it was and as there do not seem to be any seaweed experts on line at the moment I got the books out (well book actually and this a general seashore guide published in 1966) but no luck, so I went searching the web. Not a lot of seaweed sites that I could find (unless you want to eat it, but if my ID is correct you would not want to eat this one) I found one American site
Desmarestia aculeata
and came up with two species that look similar to yours Desmarestia viridis and Desmarestia aculeate. Further searches on the web show that both species are present in the waters around the UK and Ireland.
Let’s hope we can find a real expert to either confirm or set us on the correct species.

Ferret

jdoherty · #6 (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 08:59 AM

Thanks Ferret for your interest in and help with this topic. Your help and information is much appreciated.

John

Marineboy · #7 (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 11:14 PM

Hi John. I think Mrs Fish might have nailed this one with Griffithsia flosculosa. Or could it maybe be one of the various Ceramium species? Definately an interesting colour. Griffithsia gets my vote!
No doubt we can look forward to a few more of your quality photos this spring and summer.

jdoherty · #8 (**permalink**) 30-01-2008, 06:49 PM

Thanks everyone for your help. I think I'll go with Mrs Fish and Marineboy.

John

thunder · #9 (**permalink**) 30-01-2008, 09:20 PM

Current accepted name of Griffithsia flosculosa seems to be Halurus flosculosus

Maybe the British Phycological Society could aid with the identification

henrya