title: Dumontia contorta
text: # Dumontia contorta
  
  Dumontia contorta is a relatively small epiphytic algae of the sea-shore.
  
  ## Description
  
  The thallus grows from a discoid holdfast to a length of about 23 centimetres (9.1 in). The fronds branch irregularly and sparingly. The branches are hollow, soft and twisted, dark reddish brown in colour which bleach towards the tips, they clearly taper at their junction.
  
  ## Reproduction
  
  The plants are dioecious (sexes separate) with microscopic spermatangia, carposporangia, and tetrasporangia developing in the surface layer, cruciate.
  
  ## Habitat
  
  Generally epilithic in rock pools of the littoral zone.
  
  ## Distribution
  
  Common around the British Isles. Europe from Russia to Portugal and Canada to United States. In the NW Pacific and Alaska.
  
  