A close look at almost any intertidal rocky shore or coral reef will reveal an abundance of pink to pinkish-grey patches, splashed as though by a mad painter over rock surfaces. These patches of pink paint are actually living plants: crustose coralline red algae. The red algae belong to the division Rhodophyta, within which the coralline algae form a distinct, exclusively marine order, the Corallinales. Coralline algae are widespread in all of the world's oceans, where they often cover close to 100% of rocky substrata. Many are epiphytic (grow on other algae or marine angiosperms), or epizoic (grow on animals), and some are even parasitic on other corallines. Despite their ubiquity, the coralline algae are poorly known by ecologists, and even by specialist phycologists (people who study algae). For example, a recent book on the seaweeds of Hawai'i does not include any crustose coralline algae even though corallines are quite well studied there. The purpose of this web and CD-ROM based resource is to help take the mystery out of coralline algae, especially those with a crustose growth form.

Crustose coralline algae often cover close to 100% of the substratum. This image shows the coralline alga Spongites yendoi dominating the lower shore  together with the gardening limpet Patella cochlear. This association is typical of the South and southern West Coast of South Africa.

© Derek Keats  
updated 02/01/01