Chaetomorpha media (C. Agardh) Kutzing

Order Family    Genus Cladophorales Cladophoraceae Chaetomorpha

Chaetomorpha media (C. Agardh) Kutzing

Characteristics

Plants attached to hard rocky and similar substrata, erect, tufted, dark green, filaments 7-10 cm, tall, attached by a distinctive, stout, clavate basal cell which has a radicular attachment supplemented in older filaments by external branches from the sides; basal cell are 400-525 µ diameter at the top, 8-50 µ diameter long and 8-12 times as long as the suprabasal cell; filaments 450-550 µ diameter, the cell here 2-4 diameter long; rhizoids well developed, vigorous branch system, horizontally spread out on substrata, irregularly ramified, branches ending in small coraliform irregularly shaped disc by which the plants are fastened to rocks and other substrara.

Distribution : Gujarat, Malvan, Ratnagiri, (Maharashtra), Goa, Karwar, Honawar, Bhatkal (Karnataka)

Ecological status : Interidal (supralittoral)

IUCN status: LR

Uses: Food, animal feed and agricultural

Cultivation: