Description: Thallus inflated and bulbous to 30 cms long and up to 4 cms wide. Soft and flacid, easily torn. Attached by a short stipe-like section to a discoid holdfast.

Habitat: Uncommon. Epilithic in lower littoral pools and in the sublittoral to 12 m.

Distribution: Generally western in the British Isles from the Shetlands to the Channel Islands. Europe: Mediterranean and the Black Sea, Portugal, Atlantic coiasts of Spain and France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Faroes. Further afield: Canary Islands, South Africa, Indo-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand.

Similar Species: Other species of Asperococcus are similar. A.fistulosus is cylindrical and linear. A. compressus is flattened and A. scaber is solid, not hollow and less than 13 mm long.

Key Identification Features:

• Dotted all over with sori of colourless hairs and sori.

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

iNaturalist: Asperococcus bullosus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

WoRMS: Asperococcus bullosus at World Register of Marine Species. Accepted name: Asperococcus bullosus J.V.Lamouroux, 1813. AphiaID: 145311.

Classification: Biota; Chromista; Harosa; Heterokonta; Ochrophyta; Phaeophyceae; Fucophycidae; Ectocarpales; Chordariaceae; Asperococcus