#16 Dead Man's Fingers

#16 Dead Man's Fingers

Common Name: Dead Man's Fingers

Description

- Dark green in color and soft felt like texture

- About the size of a grown man's hand

- Made up of tubular fingers

- Grows in large patches near the shore

- Has no asexual stage(sporophyte)

- Male and female gametes are both produced on separate plants

Taxonomy

- Kingdom: Plantae

- Phylum: Chlorophyta

- Class: Bryopsidophyceae

- Order: Bryopsidales

- Family: Codiaceae

- Genus: Codium

- Species: C. fragile

Ecology

- Codium fragile is one of the top five high-risk invasive species.

- It's main method of transportation and spreading is by the hulls of ships, taking it from port to port.

- Codium is an extremely successful seaweed due to it's versatile requirements for sunlight, nutrients, and reproductive conditions.

- It is consumed in certain areas and is used as food for other species of vertebrates.

- Codium becomes a visual nuisance as it lines the shore, as well it washes up to rot on the beach and emits a terrible stench.

- Under the water, it out competes other types of seaweed and destroys the habitats of certain marine organisms.

- Chemical and mechanical removal has been out ruled due to the negative effects it has upon the other organism nearby.  

- Codium is native to the coastal regions of Japan.