Caulerpa webbiana

Lore & Background

The species was first formally described in 1837 by the botanist Camille Montagne as part of the work 'Centurie de plantes cellulaires exotiques nouvelles' published in Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Botanique, Seconde série. The only known synonym is Chauvinia webbiana, described by Friedrich Traugott Kützing in 1849. The type specimen was collected from around Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.

The seaweed has an olive green to bright green thallus that spreads outward to around 12 to 20 centimetres, forming dense clumps on coral rubble among seagrasses. The stems are about 4 to 6 centimetres in length and have small bristles composed of many fine branched filaments, arranged in whorls around the stolon in the middle so that it resembles a stiff bottlebrush.

The species is found in warmer waters in sediment or on coral reefs. It occurs around the Canary Islands, islands in the Caribbean, and Hawaii. It is also found in parts of Asia including Singapore, and in Western Australia along the coast in the Kimberley region extending south to the Houtman Abrolhos.

Reader's Guide

Caulerpa webbiana is a species of seaweed in the family Caulerpaceae, first formally described in 1837 by Camille Montagne. Its only known synonym is Chauvinia webbiana, described by Friedrich Traugott Kützing in 1849. The type specimen was collected from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The seaweed is notable for its distinctive bottlebrush-like morphology, with stems about 4 to 6 centimetres long bearing whorls of fine branched filaments. It forms dense clumps on coral rubble among seagrasses, with a thallus spreading 12 to 20 centimetres. The species is found in warmer waters in sediment or on coral reefs, with a distribution including the Canary Islands, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Singapore, and the Kimberley region of Western Australia extending south to the Houtman Abrolhos. Its presence across such widely separated regions highlights its adaptability to warm marine environments.