This alga can have various sizes and shapes. It tends to be cylindrical and filamentous "stems"It is usually purple-red, occasionally yellow-brown, and can grow quite long. Depending on growing conditions (light availability, depth, water movement, nutrient levels), Gracilaria chilensis can take on a broad variety of overall shapes from short, bushy, and densely branched to long and sparsely branched.

Appears to be largely confined to river mouths or estuaries. In bays, estuaries or otherwise sheltered environments; intertidal, on boulders and rocky outcrops associated with sand beaches, or subtidal to 12 m depth, attached to small stones, anchored in sand, or free-living

Uses the suns energy for photosynthesis.

http://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=11765 (accessed 06/12/10) https://seaweedindustry.com/seaweed/type/gracilaria-chilensis (accessed 30/01/13)