Cryptopleura is a genus of marine red algae (Rhodophyta) established by the German phycologist Friedrich Traugott Kützing in 1843. It belongs to the family Delesseriaceae — a family of roughly 100 genera of marine red algae — within the order Ceramiales and the class Florideophyceae.
The genus is accepted in both the GBIF backbone taxonomy and the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS, via AlgaeBase), and currently comprises around a dozen recognized species, including Cryptopleura ramosa, C. crispa, C. dichotoma, C. corallinara, C. lacerata, C. lobulifera, C. hayamensis, C. imbricata, C. rosacea, C. ruprechtiana, and C. violacea. As with many red algal genera, its members are exclusively marine.
Note for disambiguation: the name Cryptopleura was also used by Thomas Nuttall for an unrelated genus of flowering plants; that usage is now treated as a synonym of Agoseris (family Asteraceae) and has no taxonomic connection to this red-algal genus.
Taxonomy notes
Cryptopleura Kützing, 1843 is placed in family Delesseriaceae, order Ceramiales, class Florideophyceae, phylum Rhodophyta. An unrelated homonym, Cryptopleura Nutt., was used for a genus of flowering plants and is now treated as a synonym of Agoseris (Asteraceae) — a separate, unconnected taxon of the same name.
Ecology
Species of Cryptopleura are marine red algae, consistent with their placement in Rhodophyta and the family Delesseriaceae, a family of marine red algae.
