Desmarestia aculeata (Linnaeus) J.V.Lamouroux
Thallus cylindrical, bushy, dark olive brown, to 1 m long.
Frond rigid, much branched, branching irregularly alternate. All
axes and branches flattened, tough and opaque. In spring
and summer branchlets are soft to touch, yellow brown in colour,
clothed in yellow green tufts of deciduous hairs (above); at
other times the most obvious feature is the alternately arranged
sharply pointed spines. A short basal stalk arises from a
discoid holdfast. Many discoid chloroplasts per cell.
Unilocular sporangia developed from and immersed in the cortical
cells; plurilocular sporangia unknown on macrothallus.
Habitat: Infralittoral; epilithic.
- BioAtlantis provides sustainable technologies from the sea to enhance plant, animal and human health.
- Connemara Organic Seaweed Company provide hand harvested, sustainable, kelp and seaweed products for human consumption through health supplements and edible products.
- Emerald Isle Organic Irish Seaweed. A family business producing seaweed as supplements, cooking, gardening and bath products.
- Irish Seaweeds Ltd are suppliers of 100% natural hand-harvested seaweeds and edible sea vegetable products from Ireland.