Some green and red algae
As previously mentioned the greens and reds often require a lot of experience to identify, however there are some you are likely to find on the shore and can get to a level of ID even to species for some of both types. Here, we briefly introduce five you are likely to find on your Shoresearch.
Once you’ve gone through the information, you will then be tested.
The species in focus are:
sea lettuce/letysen fôr (Ulva lactuca)
gutweed/gwymon perfedd gwyrdd (Ulva intestinalis)
Cladophora sp.
irish moss/lafwr piws (Chondrus crispus)
wrack siphon weed (Polysiphonia lanosa or Vertebrata lanosa)
Those tricky reds and greens
sea lettuce/letysen fôr (Ulva lactuca)
©North Wales Wildlife Trust
- bright green
- found across the different shore areas/zones.
- thin, flat, wide frond
- short-growing, can sometimes form unattached, floating masses.
- dies back in winter, can see it bleached yellow-white on shore
gutweed/gwymon perfedd gwyrdd (Ulva intestinalis)
©North Wales Wildlife Trust
- bright green,
- thin, long, tubular fronds with air trapped within making it look like sausage string
- found across shore heights, can sometimes form unattached, floating masses.
- usually unbranched, long (up to 30cm)
- fronds hang down together, look like a clump
- dies back in winter, can see it bleached yellow-white on shore
Cladophora species.
©North Wales Wildlife Trust
- can grow in different ways depending on environmental conditions and species,
- common species is: dark green
- found across the different shore areas/zones.
- thin, branched fronds,
- short-growing and dense
- looks and feels like rough-coated terrier fur
irish moss/lafwr piws (Chondrus crispus)
©North Wales Wildlife Trust
- rich red/purple colour (can bleach to green and white also, but look at base of plant),
- flat fronds, which branch into two equally
- stalk does not branch
- grows to about 8cm with several fronds
- looks 2-D in appearance (able to easily lay flat if you wanted to press it)
- likes low shore and rockpool edges
- Climate Change Indicator timed search species
wrack siphon weed (Polysiphonia lanosa or Vertebrata lanosa)
©North Wales Wildlife Trust
- lives on eggwrack as an epiphyte
- densely branched, pom-pom style growth
- dark red,
- will occasionally grow on other wracks and rocks, but then might be confused with other reds
The next section is the quiz. Click to begin the quiz, the questions will appear below. For the fill-in-the-gaps questions, make sure you spell the same way as the word/phrase in the list, but don’t worry about using capitals or not. If you get any one question wrong within each quiz page, the you will be marked as wrong for the whole page. Answers will appear one you’ve finished each question.
You will be tested on what you’ve learnt so far using the reading and video info. Don’t worry too much, as once you’ve been out on the shore, the ID features you’ve learnt about will make more sense and after a couple of visits you should feel more confident about your ID.
Good luck!