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Description: |
Plants 1.5-2.5 diameter tall, bushy, with green or yellow axes and rose branchlets, main stems long, which are sparingly alternately branched, 0.75-1.50 diameter, but above are increasingly closely paniculately branched and spreading, the smallest branches and the short, truncate, ultinate branchlets opposite or subverticillate, 0.5-0.75 mm diameter; tetrasporangia in a band below the apex of the hardly modified branchlets.
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| Name History |
Adjective (Latin), obtuse, blunt |
| Biogeography |
Worldwide in warm temperate to tropical seas. |
| Uses and compounds |
Direct use as food - food, consumed whole Provide biological, medical and pharmacological activity - evidence of antibacterial activity by bromine- and chlorine- containing components (Braune & Guiry, 2011). Diterpenes neorogioldiol and prevezol isolated from the red alga Laurencia obtusa displayed significant cytotoxicity against the human tumour cell lines, while prevezol exhibited significant cytotoxicity against Hesome cell lines. Prevezol was moderately active against all cell lines (IIopoulou et al., 2003). Antimalarial activity - Snyderol sesquiterpene derivative isolated from the red alga Laurencia obtusa was active against clones of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum (Topeu et al., 2003 |
| References |
Dawes, C.J. & Mathieson, A.C. (2008). The seaweeds of Florida. pp. [i]- viii, [1]-591, [592], pls I-LI. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. Maggs, C.A. & Hommersand, M.H. (1993). Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 1. Rhodophyta. Part 3A. Ceramiales. pp. xv + 444, 129 figs, map. London: HMSO. Serio, D., Petrocelli, A., Cormaci, M., Cecere, E. & Furnari, G. (2008). First record of Osmundea oederi (Gunnerus) G. Furnari comb. nov. (Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta) from the Mediterranean Sea. Cryptogamie, Algologie 29: 119-127. Skelton, P.A. & South, G.R. (2007). The benthic marine algae of the Samoan Archipelago, South Pacific, with emphasis on the Apia District. Nova Hedwigia Beihefte 132: 1-350. Wynne, M.J., Serio, D., Cormaci, M. & Furnari, G. (2005). The species of Chondrophycus and Laurencia (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales) occurring in Dhofar, the Sultanate of Oman. Phycologia 44: 497-509. Zhang J.F. & Xia, B.M. (1988). Laurencia from China: key list and distribution of the species. In: Taxonomy of economic seaweeds with reference to some Pacific and Caribbean species. (Abbott, I.A. Eds) Vol.2, pp. 249-252. California Sea Grant College Program. Zuccarello, G.C. & West, J.A. (2006). Molecular phylogeny of the subfamily Bostrychioideae (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta): subsuming Stictosiphonia and highlighting polyphyly in species of Bostrychia. Phycologia 45: 24-36. |
| Habitat: |
On solid substrata, in extremely shallow locations in calm shallow water, also in exposed locations within the intertidal zone. |
| Type information: |
Type species: This is the type species (lectotype) of the genus Laurencia Basionym: Fucus obtusus Hudson Type locality: Southern England (Hastings, Sussex; Devon (Lipkin & Silva 2002: 38). Lectotype: BM-K, ex Herb. Hudson (Maggs & Hommersand 1993: 398). Notes: Undated, unlocalized Maggs & Hommersand (1993:308). |
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