| Fucus serratus | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Diaphoretickes |
| Clade: | SAR |
| Clade: | Stramenopiles |
| Phylum: | Gyrista |
| Subphylum: | Ochrophytina |
| Class: | Phaeophyceae |
| Order: | Fucales |
| Family: | Fucaceae |
| Genus: | Fucus |
| Species: | F. serratus |
| Binomial name | |
| Fucus serratus | |
Fucus serratus is a seaweed of the north Atlantic Ocean, known as toothed wrack, serrated wrack, [1] or saw rack. [2] [3]
Fucus serratus is a robust alga, olive-brown in colour and similar to Fucus vesiculosus and Fucus spiralis . The Fucus serratus is one of many plants that are multicellular. It grows from a discoid holdfast up to 180 centimetres (6 ft) long. The fronds are flat, about 2 cm (0.8 in) wide, bifurcating, and up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) long including a short stipe. It branches irregularly and dichotomously. The flattened blade has a distinct midrib and is readily distinguished from related taxa by the serrated edge of the fronds. It does not have air vesicles, such as are found in F. vesiculosus, nor is it spirally twisted like F. spiralis. Male and female receptacles are on different plants. [4] The lamina shows cryptostomata – small cavities which produce colourless hairs. [5]
The reproductive bodies form in conceptacles sunken in receptacles towards the tips on the branches. In these conceptacles oogonia and antheridia are produced and after meiosis the oogonia and antheridia are released. Fertilisation follows and the zygote develops, settles and grows directly into the diploid sporophyte plant. The fertilization in the Fucus serratus would be associated with egg activation.
Fucus serratus is found along the Atlantic coast of Europe from Svalbard to Portugal, in the Canary Islands and on the shores of north-east America. [6] [7] It was introduced to Iceland and the Faroe Islands by humans within the last 1000 years where it was first noted in a phycological survey in 1900.
Fucus serratus grows very well on slow draining shores where it may occupy up to a third of the area of the entire seashore. [8] It often dominates the rocky parts of the lower shore, exposed or immersed in rock pools, on all but the most exposed shores. [9] "…the littoral zone is characterised especially by such Phaeophyta (brown algae) as Pelvetia , Ascophyllum , Egregia , Fucus and Laminaria , particularly when the shore is rocky". [10] [11]
Fucus serratus is used in Ireland and France for the production of cosmetics and for thalassotherapy. In the Western Isles of Scotland, it is harvested for use as a liquid fertiliser. [12] Since the organism contains tricacylglycerols and fatty acids.
Fucus vesiculosus, known by the common names bladderwrack, black tang, rockweed, sea grapes, bladder fucus, sea oak, cut weed, dyers fucus, red fucus and rock wrack, is a seaweed found on the coasts of the North Sea, the western Baltic Sea and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It was the original source of iodine, discovered in 1811, and was used extensively to treat goitre, a swelling of the thyroid gland related to iodine deficiency.
Strangford Lough is a large sea lough or inlet in County Down, in the east of Northern Ireland. It is the largest inlet in Ireland and the wider British Isles, covering 150 km2 (58 sq mi). The lough is almost fully enclosed by the Ards Peninsula and is linked to the Irish Sea by a long narrow channel at its southeastern edge. The main body of the lough has at least seventy islands along with many islets (pladdies), bays, coves, headlands and mudflats. It is part of the Strangford and Lecale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Strangford Lough was designated as Northern Ireland's first Marine Conservation Zone in 2013, and has been designated a Special Area of Conservation for its important wildlife.
Fucus is a genus of brown algae found in the intertidal zones of rocky seashores almost throughout the world.
Ascophyllum nodosum is a large, common cold water seaweed or brown alga (Phaeophyceae) in the family Fucaceae. Its common names include knotted wrack, egg wrack, feamainn bhuí, rockweed, knotted kelp and Norwegian kelp. It grows only in the northern Atlantic Ocean, along the north-western coast of Europe including east Greenland and the north-eastern coast of North America. Its range further south of these latitudes is limited by warmer ocean waters. It dominates the intertidal zone. Ascophyllum nodosum has been used numerous times in scientific research and has even been found to benefit humans through consumption.
Alaria esculenta is an edible seaweed, also known as dabberlocks or badderlocks, or winged kelp, and occasionally as Atlantic Wakame. It is a traditional food along the coasts of the far north Atlantic Ocean. It may be eaten fresh or cooked in Greenland, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland. It is the only one of twelve species of Alaria to occur in both Ireland and in Great Britain.
Fucus spiralis is a species of seaweed, a brown alga, living on the littoral shore of the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America. It has the common names of spiral wrack and flat wrack.
Pelvetia canaliculata, the channelled wrack, is a very common brown alga (Phaeophyceae) found on the rocks of the upper shores of Europe. It is the only species remaining in the monotypic genus Pelvetia. In 1999, the other members of this genus were reclassified as Silvetia due to differences of oogonium structure and of nucleic acid sequences of the rDNA.
Wrack is part of the common names of several species of seaweed in the family Fucaceae. It may also refer more generally to any seaweeds or seagrasses that wash up on beaches and may accumulate in the wrack zone.
The history of phycology is the history of the scientific study of algae. Human interest in plants as food goes back into the origins of the species, and knowledge of algae can be traced back more than two thousand years. However, only in the last three hundred years has that knowledge evolved into a rapidly developing science.
The Ballantine scale is a biologically defined scale for measuring the degree of exposure level of wave action on a rocky shore. Devised in 1961 by W. J. Ballantine, then at the zoology department of Queen Mary College, London, the scale is based on the observation that where shoreline species are concerned "Different species growing on rocky shores require different degrees of protection from certain aspects of the physical environment, of which wave action is often the most important." The species present in the littoral zone therefore indicate the degree of the shore's exposure.
Corallina officinalis is a calcareous red seaweed which grows in the lower and mid-littoral zones on rocky shores.
Fucus distichus or rockweed is a species of brown alga in the family Fucaceae to be found in the intertidal zones of rocky seashores in the Northern Hemisphere, mostly in rock pools.
Fucus gardneri is a species of seaweed, a brown alga living on the littoral shore of the Pacific coasts of North America. It has the common names of rockweed and bladderwrack.
Gongolaria baccata is a species of brown seaweed in the family Fucaceae. It is found in the north east Atlantic, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The species name baccata means "berry-like" and refers to the small air bladders.
Fucus guiryi is a brown alga in the family Fucaceae. It is known from numerous locations along the east coast of the North Atlantic Ocean, from Ireland to the Canary Islands.
Fucus ceranoides is a species of brown algae found in the littoral zone of the sea shore.
Cystoseira foeniculacea is a species of brown alga in the genus Cystoseira.
Melobesia membranacea is a small marine alga encrusting on the surface of other algae. In the division of the Rhodophyta.
Halidrys siliquosa is a large marine brown algae.
Lithophyllum incrustans, also known by its common names coraline crust and paint weed, is a small pinkish species of seaweed.
