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Codium fragile
Codium fragile is a conspicuous green alga with thick, spongy, and finger-like fronds, giving rise to its common name ‘Dead Man’s Fingers’. It is native to Asia and has been introduced around the globe, including North America, South America, Greenland, Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It grows attached to hard substrates in a wide range of habitats, including rocky and cobble shores, seagrass beds, oyster reefs, breakwaters, seawalls, docks, and piers. It is widely regarded as an invasive species with negative impacts ranging from interference with fishing gear and aquaculture, growing into seagrass beds, and overgrowing bivalve mollusks. However, in some cases, it can have positive impacts by supporting edible epiphytic algae and being a host habitat for saccoglossan seaslugs.
Spotted in tidepools at Tongue Point.
Spotted on Apr 20, 2019
Submitted on Apr 22, 2019
7 Comments
Thank you for your comments Lauren, Mark and Tukup.
Good catch Brian. Congratulations on the SOTD.
Nice spotting Brian.
...yes it's like Xylaria ;-)
Congratulations Brian! I didn't know there were dead sea fingers as well as the dead fungal fingers on wood!
Thank you so much Neil for your kind words and Daniele for making this SOTD. Some interesting fun facts I recently learned about Codium fragile: At one time it was used as packing material for shipping live marine invertebrates. Also this alga also plays host to others: a small red alga specializes in living on clumps of dead man's fingers (seen in pics 3-6).
Congratulations Brian, your Dead Man's Fingers are our Spotting of the Day!
We're giving you the fingers today! These Dead Man's Fingers (Codium fragile) are our Spotting of the Day. Project Noah member Brian38 writes: "Codium fragile is a conspicuous green alga with thick, spongy, and finger-like fronds, giving rise to its common name ‘Dead Man’s Fingers’. It is native to Asia and has been introduced around the globe, including North America, South America, Greenland, Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It grows attached to hard substrates in a wide range of habitats, including rocky and cobble shores, seagrass beds, oyster reefs, breakwaters, seawalls, docks, and piers. It is widely regarded as an invasive species with negative impacts ranging from interference with fishing gear and aquaculture, growing into seagrass beds, and overgrowing bivalve mollusks. However, in some cases, it can have positive impacts by supporting edible epiphytic algae and being a host habitat for saccoglossan seaslugs".
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Amazing spotting, Brian. Excellent pics and notes too. Who comes up with these names?