Sea lettuce

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Sea lettuce
Ulva lactuca - Sowerby.jpg
Ulva lactuca
Illustration from Sowerby's English botany 1790-1814, by James Sowerby
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
(unranked): Viridiplantae
Division: Chlorophyta
Class: Ulvophyceae
Order: Ulvales
Family: Ulvaceae
Genus: Ulva
Linnaeus, 1753
Species

See text

Synonyms [1]
  • Enteromorpha Link in Nees, 1820.
Ulva intestinalis Tufts of gutweed in Gullmarsfjorden at Samstad 1.jpg
Ulva intestinalis

The sea lettuces comprise the genus Ulva, a group of edible green algae that is widely distributed along the coasts of the world's oceans. The type species within the genus Ulva is Ulva lactuca , lactuca being Latin for "lettuce". The genus also includes the species previously classified under the genus Enteromorpha, [1] the former members of which are known under the common name green nori. [2]

Contents

Description

Individual blades of Ulva can grow to be more than 400 mm (16 in) in size, but this occurs only when the plants are growing in sheltered areas. A macroscopic alga which is light to dark green in colour, it is attached by disc holdfast. Their structure is a leaflike flattened thallus. [3] [4]

Nutrition and contamination

Sea lettuce is eaten by a number of different sea animals, including manatees and the sea slugs known as sea hares. Many species of sea lettuce are a food source for humans in Scandinavia, Great Britain, Ireland, China, and Japan (where this food is known as aosa). Sea lettuce as a food for humans is eaten raw in salads and cooked in soups. It is high in protein, soluble dietary fiber, and a variety of vitamins and minerals, especially iron. [5] However, contamination with toxic heavy metals at certain sites where it can be collected makes it dangerous for human consumption. [5]

Aquarium trade

Sea lettuce species are commonly found in the saltwater aquarium trade, where the plants are valued for their high nutrient uptake and edibility. Many reef aquarium keepers use sea lettuce species in refugia or grow it as a food source for herbivorous fish. Sea lettuce is very easy to keep, tolerating a wide range of lighting and temperature conditions. In the refugium, sea lettuce can be attached to live rock or another surface, or simply left to drift in the water.

Health concerns

In August 2009, unprecedented amounts of these algae washed up on the beaches of Brittany, France, causing a major public health scare as it decomposed. The rotting leaves produced large quantities of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas. In one incident near Saint-Michel-en-Grève, a horse rider lost consciousness and his horse died after breathing the seaweed fumes; in another, a lorry driver driving a load of decomposing sea lettuce passed out, crashed, and died, with toxic fumes claimed to be the cause. [6] Environmentalists blamed the phenomenon on excessive nitrogenous compounds washed out to sea from improper disposal of pig and poultry animal waste from industrial farms.

Species

Species in the genus Ulva include: [7]

Accepted species
Nomina dubia

A newly discovered Indian endemic species of Ulva with tubular thallus indistinguishable from Ulva intestinalis has been formally established in 2014 as Ulva paschima Bast. [8] Ten new species have been discovered in New Caledonia: Ulva arbuscula, Ulva planiramosa, Ulva batuffolosa, Ulva tentaculosa, Ulva finissima, Ulva pluriramosa, Ulva scolopendra and Ulva spumosa. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Ulva lactuca</i> Species of chlorophyte green alga

Ulva lactuca, also known by the common name sea lettuce, is an edible green alga in the family Ulvaceae. It is the type species of the genus Ulva. A synonym is U. fenestrata, referring to its "windowed" or "holed" appearance, Despite the name, it is not a lettuce

<i>Gracilaria</i> Genus of seaweeds

Gracilaria is a genus of red algae (Rhodophyta) notable for its economic importance as an agarophyte, as well as its use as a food for humans and various species of shellfish. Various species in the genus are cultivated among Asia, South America, Africa and Oceania.

<i>Codium</i> Genus of algae

Codium is a genus of edible green macroalgae under the order Bryopsidales. The genus name is derived from a Greek word that pertains to the soft texture of its thallus. One of the foremost experts on Codium taxonomy was Paul Claude Silva at the University of California, Berkeley. P.C. Silva was able to describe 36 species for the genus and in honor of his work on Codium, the species C. silvae was named after the late professor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chordariaceae</span> Family of algae

Chordariaceae is a family of brown algae. Members of this family are may be filamentous, crustose with fused cells at the base, or they may be terete and differentiated into a central medulla and an outer photosynthetic cortex. They have a sporphytic thallus usually aggregated to form a pseudo-parenchyma.

<i>Vaucheria</i> Genus of yellow green algae

Vaucheria is a genus of Xanthophyceae or yellow-green algae known as water felt. It is one of only two genera in the family Vaucheriaceae. The type species of the genus is Vaucheria disperma.

<i>Ulva intestinalis</i> Species of marine chlorophyte green alga

Ulva intestinalis is a green alga in the family Ulvaceae, known by the common names sea lettuce, green bait weed, gutweed, and grass kelp. Until they were reclassified by genetic work completed in the early 2000s, the tubular members of the sea lettuce genus Ulva were placed in the genus Enteromorpha.

<i>Rhodymenia</i> Genus of algae

Rhodymenia is a genus of red algae, containing the following species:

<i>Ulva linza</i> Species of seaweed

Ulva linza is a green alga in the family Ulvaceae that can be found in British Isles.

<i>Plocamium</i> Genus of algae

Plocamium is a genus of red algae in the family Plocamiaceae. It contains around 40 species and has a cosmopolitan distribution in temperate seas, although it is most diverse in the southern hemisphere. It is widely distributed in tropical and also warm-temperate and cold-temperate seas, such as northern Europe, the northern Arabian Sea and western Australia. They are also found in the Antarctic regions of Admiralty Bay and Terra Nova Bay.

Ulva acanthophora is a species of benthic subtropical seaweed in the Ulvaceae family that can be found in California and Mexico.

<i>Ulva chaetomorphoides</i> Species of alga

Ulva chaetomorphoides is a species of tropical and benthic seaweed in Ulvaceae family that can be found in Gulf of Mexico and European waters.

<i>Blidingia marginata</i> Species of alga

Blidingia marginata is a species of seaweed in the Kornmanniaceae family.

<i>Hypnea</i> Genus of algae

Hypnea is a genus of red algae, and a well known carrageenophyte.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllophoraceae</span> Family of algae

Phyllophoraceae is a family of red algae in the order Gigartinales.

References

  1. 1 2 Hillary S. Hayden; Jaanika Blomster; Christine A. Maggs; Paul C. Silva; Michael J. Stanhope & J. Robert Waaland (2003). "Linnaeus was right all along: Ulva and Enteromorpha are not distinct genera" (PDF). European Journal of Phycology. 38 (3): 277–294. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.330.5106 . doi:10.1080/1364253031000136321. ISSN   1469-4433. S2CID   18856367. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-07.
  2. M.D. Guiry & G.M. Guiry (2012). "Enteromorpha Link in Nees, 1820". AlgaeBase. National University of Ireland. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  3. "Sea lettuce | green algae". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  4. Burrows, E.M. 1991. Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 2 Chlorophyta. Natural History Museum, ISBN   0-565-00981-8
  5. 1 2 Yaich, H.; Garna, H.; Besbes, S.; Paquot, M.; Blecker, C.; Attia, H. (2011), "Chemical composition and functional properties of Ulva lactuca seaweed collected in Tunisia", Food Chemistry, 128 (4): 895–901, doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.03.114, S2CID   85407130
  6. "Seaweed suspected in French death". BBC. September 7, 2009. Retrieved September 7, 2009.
  7. M.D. Guiry (2012). Guiry MD, Guiry GM (eds.). "Ulva Linnaeus, 1753". AlgaeBase. National University of Ireland, Galway . World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  8. BAST, F., JOHN, A.A. AND BHUSHAN, S. 2014. Strong endemism of bloom-forming tubular Ulva in Indian west coast, with description of Ulva paschima Sp. Nov. (Ulvales, Chlorophyta. PLoS ONE 9(10): e109295. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109295
  9. Lagourgue, L et al 2022 The new species of Ulva (Ulvophyceae, Chlorophyta) discovered in New Caledonia genetic and morphological and diversity, and bloom potential. British Phycological Society57;458 - 478.

Other References

Beer,Sven. 2023 Photosynthetic traits of ubiquitous and prolific macroalga Ulva (Chlorophyta): a review. European Journal of Phycology58:390 - 398.