''Prasiola crispa'' is a small terrestrial

green alga The green algae (singular: green alga) are a group consisting of the Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister which contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta. The land plants (Embryophytes) have emerged deep in the Charophyte alga as ...

Taxonomy

The species, first described as ''Ulva crispa'' Lightfoot, is the type of the genus ''

Prasiola ''Prasiola'' is a genus of fresh water and marine green algae. Each individual plant is small but they usually grow side by side to form a green turf on rock surfaces. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution. Occurrence Freshwater species ...

.'' A

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

was nominated for the species, the type location of which was provided in accompanying notation as walls that faced north and were favoured as urinals. The specific epithet is said to translate as "crisped", a reference to the irregular convolutions of the species.

Description

This is a small green alga growing to about 6 cm long. The frond is round in shape, flattened. Generally one cell thick, the cells are arranged in rows or in groups of four. It seems to be an important food source for Antarctic collembolans. The species has been used a model for the study of the effects of high intensities of UV radiation on photosynthesis.

Reproduction

Reproduction is by akinetes and aplanospores.

Distribution

Recorded world-wide mostly from cold-temperate to polar regions, e.g. from

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

,Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands celandic Institute of Natural History(1996).
Válisti 1: Plöntur.
' (in Icelandic) Reykjavík: Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands. the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

including the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, Japan and the Pacific shores of North America. In

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

, the species lives near penguin colonies.

Conservation status

, it is

red list The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

ed as a

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Vulnera ...

(VU).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20920538 Prasiolales Seaweeds