Dictyota friabilis

Thalli delicate, repent, overlapping each other, forming compact low turfs, yellowbrown, greenish-brown to bluish-green iridescent. Branching irregular, dichotomous, subdichotomous. Blades strap-shaped, 2-4(-6) mm wide, 95-150 mm thick. Margins entire, apices broad, rounded. Surface cells rectangular, sometimes irregular, arranged in longitudinal rows, (10)-25-33 mm wide, 25-60 mm long. In transverse section, medullary cells rectangular, 30-50x37.5-70 mm; cortical cells square, transversely elongated, 10-17x17-45 mm. Hairs in tufts, scattered. Rhizoids ventral, sometimes marginal, (14)-20-25 mm wide, to 800 mm long. Sporangia solitary or in groups, spherical, 70-85 mm diam. Antheridial sori 75-90(-125) mm diam. Growing tightly adhering to dead corals, rocks or epiphytic, intertidal to 2-4 m deep in protected or in moderate exposed to wave action localities.

Note: This species is used in folk medicine.

Tropics and subtropics of Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.