Purple Laver

Appearance

Identifying features
- A small red seaweed, up to 20 cm across
- Tough irregularly shaped broad frond.
- Small disc-like holdfast.
- Greenish when young becoming purplish-red.
- Has a polythene-like texture

Habitat

Purple laver is highly adaptable to conditions on different parts of the rocky shore and able to withstand prolonged periods of exposure to the air as well as tolerating a greater degree of wave action than most other red algae. It occurs singly or in dense colonies throughout the intertidal but most frequently at upper levels.