Fucales

Fucales is an order in the Phylum Phaeophyta or Brown algae. Members of this order are fucoids. The list of families (see box at right) in Fucales, as well as additional taxonomic information on algae, is publicly accessible at Algaebase. 

The Class Phaeophyceae is included within the Division Heterokontophyta. This name comes from the Greek word phaios meaning "brown" and phyton meaning plant. They include some of the largest plants in the sea, some however are small and fine in structure.

Classification
The Class Phaeophyceae is devided into the following orders (Hoek, 1995).


 * Ectocarpales


 * Sphacelariales


 * Syringodermatales


 * Dictyotales


 * Scytosiphonales


 * Cutleriales


 * Dictyosiphonales


 * Chordariales


 * Sporochnales


 * Desmarestiales


 * Laminariales


 * Fucales                                                                                                               **Fucus


 * Durvillaeales


 * Ascoseirales

The Fucales include some of the more common littoral seaweeds and the members of the order have the typical seaweed construction: a holdfast, stipe and lamina. The lamina is often much branched and may include gas filled bladders. Growth is by division of the apical cells.

They are oogamous where there is fusion between the small male gamete and the large female gamete.

As their general name suggests their pigmentation is brown. All species are multicellular. Full details of the characteristics are complex and consist of details of the flagella, shape of the chloroplasts, structure of the cell walls and details of the life-cycle.

Numbers
There are about 1,500 - 2,000 species of brown seaweeds world-wide.