''Kappaphycus'' is a genus of
red algae. Species are distributed in the waters of
East Africa,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
,
Hainan Island
Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly ...
, the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, and
Micronesia
Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...
.
[Guiry, M. D. In: Guiry, M. D. & G. M. Guiry. 2013]
''Kappaphycus''.
AlgaeBase. National University of Ireland, Galway. Accessed 07 November 2013.
Genus ''Kappaphycus'' is "morphologically plastic",
with few visible characters that can be used to separate the taxa, so distinguishing the species can be difficult. In addition, many commercial varieties have been bred. Molecular analyses can be used.
In general, these algae have fleshy
thalli
Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms were ...
that grow erect from one or more anchors. The longest individuals can exceed a meter in length. All species produce kappa-
carrageenan
Carrageenans or carrageenins ( ; ) are a family of natural linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red edible seaweeds. Carrageenans are widely used in the food industry, for their gelling, thickening, and stabilizing properties. T ...
.
[ Farming of this is a large business in the Philippines. Gavino Trono is a Filipino biologist dubbed the “Father of Kappaphycus farming”.][Conklin, E. J. and J. E. Smith. (2005)]
Abundance and spread of the invasive red algae, ''Kappaphycus'' spp., in Kane'ohe Bay, Hawai'i and an experimental assessment of management options.
''Biological Invasions'' 7(6), 1029-39.
There are about 6 species:[
*'' Kappaphycus alvarezii''
*'' Kappaphycus cottonii''
*'' Kappaphycus inermis''
*'' Kappaphycus malesianus''
*'' Kappaphycus procrusteanus''
*'' Kappaphycus striatus''
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q16983870
Red algae genera
Solieriaceae