Cartilaginous, dark purplish-red, red, yellowish or greenish fronds to 150 mm high, found on rocky shores, gametophyte plants are often iridescent under water when in good conditions. Stripe compressed, narrow, expanding gradually to a flat, repeatedly dichotomously branched frond in tufts from a discoid holdfast. Axils rounded, apices blunt or sub acute, frond thicker in centre than margins. Very variable in breadth of segments. Very variable in branching, colour and thickness. Highly variable in appearance depending on the level of wave exposure of the shore and has a tendency to turn green in strong sunlight. These algae are fixed by a disk whose start unbranched stripe gradually expanding into fan-like blade, repeatedly dichotomously divided, with ends rounded or truncated. On the surface of the blades may appear small dilations (2-3 mm in diameter) which are the reproductive structures.

Link for Algaebase (http://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=19519)

Link for Algae Handbook (http://www.cmia-viana-castelo.pt/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=285&Itemid=92)

Link for MarLin (http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=2971)

Link for MACOI (http://macoi.ci.uc.pt/spec_list_detail.php?spec_id=35)