Description: Thallus to 1 m long, bushy with irregular branching but often denuded in the lower parts with only peg-like remains of broken branchlets. Bladders are large, over 5 mm in length. Not iridescent underwater.

Habitat: Rather rare. Epilithic in low littoral rock pools and the shallow sublittoral.

Distribution: Locally abundant in parts of the north, west and south coast of Ireland, south wales, south-west England and the Channel Islands. Mediterranean, Atlantic coast of Spain and France. Further afield: Mauritania.

Similar Species: Other species of the genus.

Key Identification Features:

• Not iridescent underwater. Small bladders.

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

iNaturalist: Cystoseira baccata at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Gongolaria baccata

WoRMS: Cystoseira baccata at World Register of Marine Species. Accepted name: Gongolaria baccata (S.G.Gmelin, 1768) Molinari & Guiry, 2020. AphiaID: 1659019.

Classification: Biota; Chromista; Harosa; Heterokonta; Ochrophyta; Phaeophyceae; Fucophycidae; Fucales; Sargassaceae; Cystoseira