A genus of small red algae that forms crusty, branching structures resembling coral on the ocean floor.
From Latin 'corallium' (coral) plus the feminine Latin suffix '-a' used in scientific nomenclature. The genus name was formalized in the 18th century by Carl Linnaeus as he catalogued marine algae that visually mimicked coral structures. The naming reflects early taxonomy's reliance on appearance.
Corallina algae are literally 'false corals'—they're plants, not animals, yet they build their own skeleton-like structures out of calcium carbonate just like real coral does, showing that evolution can solve the same building problem in completely different ways.
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