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Rhodophyta · Red Seaweed

Grateloupia californica

Kylin
Phylum
Rhodophyta
Class
Florideophyceae
Order
Halymeniales
Family
Halymeniaceae

Grateloupia californica

Spiny red bottlebrush

Authority
Kylin
Thallus is dark reddish-rose to yellowish, lanceolate, slippery, often with many small spinelike or lanceolate proliferations along margin of main blade, sometimes to several orders, to 30 cm (12 in) tall although usually shorter.

Habitat

This species occurs on rock in the low intertidal, often associated with sand, on semi-exposed to semiprotected shores.

North Pacific Distribution

Sitka Sound, Alaska to Baja California, Mexico.

Former scientific names

Iridaea pinnata, Grateloupia pinnata, Grateloupia postelsii

Similar taxa

Prionitis spp, are firm, not slippery, and are usually not associated with sand.

References

Last updated December 26, 2010

Photos