Sphaerococcus coronopifolius

Sphaerococcus coronopifolius is a dark red alga at the base and carmine red to the exterior. It has an arborescent shape and is attached to the substrate with a spheroidal thallus. It can exceed 25/30 cm in height and we can find it up to 40 meters deep.
Sphaerococcus coronopifolius alga algae alghe rosse intotheblue

The spherococcus belongs to the Plant Kingdom and to the division of Red Algae.
Here we will mean by Plant Kingdom the set of life forms (in the case only algae and plants) capable of autonomously producing (photosynthesis) organic substances.

Description

This perennial species is quite showy, because it shows bright red color, especially in its basal part, but sometimes also orange red or dark pink, with the terminations just lighter. In water it usually appears erect, with a rather leafy appearance and cartilage consistency.

It is also an alga capable of reaching 25 centimeters in height. In practice, the specimens are fixed to the substrate thanks to a well-developed basal disk, from which they rise from one to several axes with a circular section of approximately 5 millimeters in diameter. The axes therefore show a cylindrical appearance and are branched irregularly and not too much. From them branches often flattened and strongly branched, always irregularly, on several levels. The terminal ramules appear thorny, because they have short thorn-shaped penlets, especially in the reproductive period when isolated cystocarps appear on them.

Sphaerococcus coronopifolius alga algae alghe rosse intotheblue

It colonizes seabed also subject to medium wave motion, or more sheltered, and often hosts small herbivorous gastropod molluscs.
In the unfavorable season (autumn and winter) the specimens are stripped of much foliage, remaining with only the disc base and the first cylindrical branches. The reddish color remains even in this season and in spring the thallus originates new fronds.
It is a typical species of the Mediterranean, including the Black Sea, and of the eastern coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, from the North Sea to the Canary Islands.

https://cinqueterre.macisteweb.com/dborganismi/3c40cf63951a478eb82de35c6684d273

https://www.biologiamarina.org/sferococco/

 

Sphaerococcus coronopifolius

 

 

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