Green Light Images

The Red Seaweeds Gallery

Ceramium

Ceramium sp.Ceramiaceae

The attractive banding is the result of proliferations of cells at intervals along the length of the filaments.
Mastocarpus

Mastocarpus stellatusFalse Irish moss

Female plant showing proliferations towards the ends of the fronds.
Chondrus

Chondrus crispusDulse, Carrageen or Irish moss

Two fronds with striking dichotomous branching. This is one of the few red algal species with a genuinely vernacular name.
Corallina

Corallina officinalisCorallinaceae

Growing in its usual habitat, a rockpool.
Delesseria

Delesseria sanguineaID tentative

The veins, seen here branching off the midrib on a blade of the seaweed, provide structural support only - there's no vascular tissue in the red algae.
Gelidium

Gelidium pulchelumID tentative

The surface of this "chunky" branching red seaweed, bears a pink encrustation formed by some other red alga growing on its surface.
Lithophyllum

Lithophyllum incrustansID tentative

Lining a rock pool at The Vaults on the coastline near Dunbar, East Lothian.
Lithothamnion

Lithothamnion glacialeID tentative

Forming a wine-red coating on the walls of a rock pool near low water mark of spring tides. Note the white margin around each "colony".
Membranoptera

Membranoptera alataDelesseriaceae

Photomicrograph showing the tetraporangia and tetraspores borne on the terminal bladelet of a frond of this seaweed.
Osmundea

Osmundea ?pinnatifidaRhodomellaceae

Fern-like fronds anchored to rocky outcrops. It's worth remembering that red algal tissues are made up of filaments, and so when we see form resembling that in green plants, we're seeing analogous morphology and not homologous.
Palmaria

Palmaria sp.ID tentative

A mosaic colony of this red seaweed and the green seaweed Sea Lettuce (Ulva sp.
Porphyra

Porphyra sp.Laver

Forming a very thin and shiny membrane clinging to igneous rocks exposed on the shore east of North Berwick, East Lothian.
Plocamium

Plocamium cartilaginiumPlocamiaceae

The one-sided branching in this species creates a characteristic, and strangely attractive, appearance.
Rhodochorton

Rhodochorton purpureumID tentantive

"Cushion" on the igneous rocks on the shore at Belhaven Bay, close to the level of the highest spring tides.
Rhodochorton

Rhodochorton purpureumID tentantive

As in the fungi, the macroscopic body in the Rhodophyta is made up of uniseriate filaments. In this particular red seaweed, the filaments are closely aggregated into cushion-like mounds.
Vertebrata

Vertebrata lanosaRhodomelaceae

The older name of Polysiphonia lanosa is more descriptive of the many siphons or cylinders, that are aggregated together to form the broad filaments in this red seaweed.
Rhodothamniella

Rhodothamniella floridulaID tentative

The reddish tinge in this patch of sand, results from masses of filaments of the seaweed weaving through the sediment particles.
Rhodothamniella

Rhodothamniella floridulaID tentative

Uniseriate filaments from a colony that was binding sand on a fairly exposed shore at Belhaven, East Lothian.