Cystoseira


Cystoseira

 

a genus of brown algae of the order Fucales. The shrubby, mainly perennial plants are 0.5 to 2 m long (less commonly, as much as 8 m long) and have cylindrical or flattened branches, often with air sacs. Reproduction is sexual, consisting of oogoniums with a single egg cell. There are about 30 species, distributed mainly in seas of the northern subtropical zone. Three species occur in the USSR: two in the Black Sea and one in the seas of Japan and Okhotsk. The algae yield alginic acids and alginates, which are used in the food and textile industries.