| Notes: |
Ricardo Lopes e Ana Carrilho, Formentera, Ibiza, Spain - The Caulerpa prolifera alga was photographed in Formentera, Ibiza, Spain.
Although the Island of Formentera is the smallest inhabited Island from Balearic archipelago, it has a very long coast (about 82km) in proportion to its surface. Along the coast, there are a lot of beaches and numerous coves that usually attracts a lot of tourism activities. In Formentera, the climatic characteristics vary very little from one place to another, but there are small variations, largely the temperature and humidity, between the lower parts of the island and the Miocene promontories of La Mola and Cap de Barbaria.
This island is characterized by the presence of a lot of species of reptiles, beetles and birds and also by the presence of a diverse water life in wetlands and torrents. With respect to the vegetation, Formentera’s wild vegetation is characterized by the dominance of pine and thuriferous juniper woods of P. halepensis and J. phoenicea in forest habitats, accompanied by a bush stratum showing different variants depending on climatic and soil conditions.
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| Description: |
Caulerpa prolifera’s individual plants show a great variability of form, even when obtained from the same source, and it has been proved that this is in part related to the level of light. Like other members of the order Bryopsidales, each C. prolifera plant is an individual organism consisting of a giant single cell with multiple nuclei. A frond of C. prolifera consists of an undefined number of blades or laminae linked by stolons that are fixed to the sandy substrate by rhizoids. Stolons can reach to 12 m.m-2, but generally are more ramified in epilithic specimens. The entire alga can reach to 1m in length. Blades contain chlorophyll for photosynthesis, but the green color is also masked by other pigments. Chloroplasts can move from one part of the plant to another as response to the level of light at any point, that is facilitated by the presence of a network fibrous proteins. |
Species:
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Caulerpa prolifera (Forsskål) J.V.Lamouroux |
