| Sargassaceae () |
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sessile; marine |
| Indo-Pacific Ocean. |
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Large, dark brown thalli attached to substrate by a discoid holdfast; a short (less than 1 cm) and slender stem, giving rise to 1 or 2 main somewhat compressed and smooth primary branches. Branchlets bearing leaves and vesicles alternately arranged on the primary branches; leaves generally oblong (2.5 to 3.5 cm long) and obovate (2.0 to 3.0 cm long), with coarsely toothed outer margins, cryptostomata scattered on both surfaces; distal portions of some leaves with thick duplicate margins. Vesicles sparse, pedunculate, attached to the stalk of the leaves, elliptical to spherical, 4 to 11 mm in diameter, with isolated lateral teeth or ridges, sometimes with foliaceous extensions. Receptacles forming simple to compound cymes with short stalks; receptacular branches once or twice branched, compressed to flattened at their distal portions with teeth at tips and margins. Thalli up to 50 cm in height (Ref. 80758). |
| A good biomass source for biogas production; used as fertilizer, as human food, animal fodder and medicine; also a very good source of alginate which is used in the food industry; possesses growth regulator substances similar to auxin, gibberellin, and cytokinin (Ref. 80758). Shows an intra-annual pattern of variation in standing crop similar to S. crassifolium. Its standing crop is lowest in the period from February to May and highest from November to January (Ref. 80758). |
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Not Evaluated (N.E.) Ref. 123251)
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| harmless |
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