''Osmundea hybrida'' is a fairly small marine red alga.

Description

''Osmundea hybrida'' is small branched alga which grows from a holdfast to 15 mm long. The axes show a main axis with branches which may be spiral or irregular. The main axis may be slightly compressed with a medulla of cells surrounded by a cortex deep purplish-brown in colour. A small circular pit occurs at the apex of the branches.Maggs, C.A. and Hommersand, M.H.1993 ''Seaweeds of the British Isles Volume 1 Rhodophyta Part 3A Ceramiales''

Habitat

Common but not as common as '' Osmundea pinnatifida''. Epilithic in the littoral on stones, rock and on limpets.

Reproduction

Spermatangial receptacles, where the male gametes occur in small cups, are at the end of the side branches. Cystocarps are spherical and sessile and tetraspores are produced in small branchlets.

Distribution

This alga is to be found all around the British Isles as far north as

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

.Hardy, F.G. and Guiry, M.D.2003. ''A Check-list and Atlas of the Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland'' British Phycological Society Further south it is recorded to Portugal.

References

Rhodomelaceae {{Rhodophyta-stub