Cartilaginous, dark purplish-red, red, with yellowish or greenish fronds to 150 mm high. Stipe compressed, narrow, expanding gradually to a flat, repeatedly dichotomously branched frond, in tufts from a discoid holdfast. Axils rounded, apices blunt or subacute, frond thicker in centre than margins. It can be found on rocks, lower intertidal and shallow subtidal, in pools in the mid-intertidal in some locations.