Members of the Porphyra genus of algae are commonly consumed by humans. In nature, these red algae are typically found in temperate intertidal zones, but most Porphyra marketed today is cultivated at large sea farms in China, Japan, and South Korea. The discovery that Porphyra exhibits a trimorphic life cycle in the late 1940s contributed greatly to the success of commercial operations, which had been up to that time under poor control since no one understood exactly how the algae multiplied. Indeed, for many years it had been assumed that the filamentous stage of the Porphyra life cycle was a different species that was named Conchocelis rosea. Now it is known, however, that filamentous morphs of Porphyra are formed following a carposporophyte stage exhibited by the genus, and that they develop into the familiar edible thallus form subsequent to this stage's maturation in the shells of marine animals, which leads to the release of conchospores.