Description: Thallus terete and erect to 30 cms long growing from a discoid holdfast. Branched, not obviously regularly polysiphonous, the monosiphonous axis is surrounded by 6 elongated pericentral cells not of uniform length with their cross walls in the same plane. Corticate.

Habitat: Common. Generally epilithic in low littoral rock pools and sublittoral to 27 m.

Distribution: Widespread around the British Isles including the Shetlands and Channel Islands. Europe: Spain, France, Germany, Baltic Sea, Norway, Sweden, Faroes, Spitzbergen and Iceland. Greenland. Atlantic coast of North America: Canada, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Similar Species: Cystoclonium purpureum which, however, has a rhizoidal holdfast unlike the discoid holdfast of Rhodomela. R.lycopodioides differs in having latterals more or less equal in length unlike the latterals of R. confervoides which are of varying lengths. Some Polysiphonia may be similar.

Key Identification Features:

• Not obviously polysiphonous. With central cell surrounded by 6 periaxial cells and a few layers of cells, corticate.

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

iNaturalist: Rhodomela confervoides at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

WoRMS: Rhodomela confervoides at World Register of Marine Species. Accepted name: Rhodomela confervoides (Hudson) P.C.Silva, 1952. AphiaID: 144854.

Classification: Biota; Plantae; Biliphyta; Rhodophyta; Eurhodophytina; Florideophyceae; Rhodymeniophycidae; Ceramiales; Rhodomelaceae; Rhodomeleae; Rhodomela