Description: Thallus cylindrical as small dense tufts to 6 cms long, polysiphonous except in young axes, all branches fully corticate. Branching alternately with tips strongly incurved.

Habitat: On mud, stone or wood at extreme high water in sheltered areas. Tangled around other plants in salt-water ditches and marshes.

Distribution: Widespread but local around the British Isles including the Shetland and Channel Isles. Europe: Mediterranean, Atlantic coast of Spain, France and the Netherlands. Further afield: Morocco, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and South America.

Key Identification Features:

• The only red alga found at high water, the tightly inrolled branches make this species, although small and appearing more brown than red, readily identifiable.

Distribution Map from NBN: Bostrychia scorpioides at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Bostrychia scorpioides at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

WoRMS: Bostrychia scorpioides at World Register of Marine Species. Accepted name: Bostrychia scorpioides (Hudson) Montagne, 1842. AphiaID: 144791.

Classification: Biota; Plantae; Biliphyta; Rhodophyta; Eurhodophytina; Florideophyceae; Rhodymeniophycidae; Ceramiales; Rhodomelaceae; Bostrychieae; Bostrychia