Pterocladiella capillaceais a cartilaginous dark purplish-red alga with flattened fronds only a coupleof millimetres wide, branching pinnately into a neat tapering outline that isoften likened to a Christmas tree. It grows in loose tufts in largelower-intertidal pools and the shallow subtidal across warm-temperate andtropical coasts, and is commercially significant as a source of high-gradebacteriological and pharmaceutical agar. In an exhibit it does a job the largerreds can’t: at 30cm it provides fine, dark, textural detail among rockwork,breaking up hard edges and adding tonal contrast against greens and brownswithout dominating the scene.
Habitat/Exhibit Use
Warm-temperate to tropicalworldwide, including southern and south-western Britain, the Mediterranean,Atlantic islands and the North West Pacific. For rockpool, warm-temperate reefand detail planting among rock and coral.
