Cartilaginous, cylindrical, tufted, brownish purple fronds, to 300 mm long (more usually about 70 mm long), from branched rhizoidal holdfast. Branching ± alternate, tripinnate, ramuli with terminal tufts of colourless dichotomous fibrils. Plants perennial, ramuli and branchlets shed in winter, leaving jagged stumps. Large central siphon surrounded by 12-20 pericentral siphons, corticated only at base. Articulations as long as broad in older parts, to 1.5 times as long as broad distally. 

Original publication: Greville, R.K. (1824). Flora edinensis: or a description of plants growing at Edinburgh, arranged according to the Linnean system. With a concise introduction to the natural orders of the class Cryptogamia, and illustrative plates. pp. i-lxxi, 1-478, 4 pls. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood; T. Cadell.
 Download PDF

Loiseaux-de Goër, S. & Noailles, M.-C. (2008). Algues de Roscoff. pp. [1]-215, col. figs. Roscoff: Editions de la Station Biologique de Roscoff.

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.

Basionym
Conferva fucoides Hudson

Type information
Type locality: York, England (Silva, Basson & Moe 1996: 541). Neotype: undated, unlocalised; herb. Lightfoot “names repeatedly by Hudson C. fucoides” BM-K (Maggs & Hommersand 1993: 338). Notes: See also Irvine & Dixon (1982).