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Name derivation:
Monostroma grevillei- common name: sea cellophane Monostroma = L. mono: one or single + stroma: layer grevillei named for Robert Kaye Greville, a British botanist who published on Scottish seaweeds between 1823 and 1866 and also on diatoms
Classification:
Monostroma Thuret 1854; there are 65 species of which currently 27 have been accepted taxonomically (Guiry and Guiry 2013). Order Ulotrichales; Family Gomontiaceae
Morphology:
A foliose green alga that is one layer thick; it originates from a saccate juvenile stage that splits open to form a single celled thick blade Similar genera: Ulva, Ulvaria and “Enteromorpha”, with each having different development patterns .
Similar genera:
Habitat:
Found in shallow sea water usually less than 1 m. in depth. Attached to rocks, coral, mollusk shells or other hard substrates, and also grows as an epiphyte on seaweeds such as Kappaphycus and Eucheuma. A winter-early spring annual found within the North Atlantic. It is initially found as a saccate juvenile stage (see above), then a foliose monostromatic blade. Upon reproduction and its disappearance it “perenniates” as a microscopic “Codiolum” stage.
References:
Burrows, E. M. 1991. Seaweeds of the British Isles. Vol. 2. Chlorophyta. Natural History Museum, London, Publ. xii + 238 pp., 9 pls. Guiry, M.D. and G.M. Guiry 2013. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 2 August 2013. Taylor, W. R. 1957. Marine Algae of the Northeastern Coast of North America. Revised edition. Univ. Michigan Press., Ann Arbor, ix + 509 pp. (as Spongomorpha) Thuret, G. 1854. Note sur la synonymie des Ulva lactuca et latissima, L., suivie de quelques remarques sur la tribu des Ulvacées. Mémoires de la Société des Sciences Naturelles de Cherbourg 2: 17-32.