Colpomenia peregrina Sauvageau
Common names: Oyster Thief, Bladder Weed;
Ballons, Voleuse d'huîtres.
Description: Plants baloon-like when young,
becoming contorted and collapsed with age, brown when young to
yellow-brown when older, generally 30-90 mm, but up to 250 mm.
Frond thin, papery, delicate, and filled with seawater when
young, hollow and empty when older.
Habitat: Generally growing epiphytically on
Corallina officinalis
and other algae, and on mussels and oysters. It most obvious in
spring, reaching its maximum size in May in Ireland.
Key characteristics: Not solid and gelatinous
like
Leathesia marina, which persists all year around although it most obvious in
summer.
Note: An introduced species, perhaps by means
of shellfish movements. Plants are said to inflate with gas and
to float away with small oysters; thus the common name.
Identification guide for selected marine non-native species (National Museum Wales). (Download free PDF, about 3.5 Mb).
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