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Monday, February 14, 2011

Seaweed II - Kelp

Back in January I posted a photo of some of the green lettuce-like seaweed that often piles up on the shoreline along the Westbay Walkway and I mentioned that another kind of seaweed also forms large drifts on the beaches. I referred to it as, "spaghetti-like tangles of giant kelp" and you can see what I meant in the above photo. Its latin name is Macrocystis pyrifera and it is the largest of all algae. It can grow as much as 2 feet in a day. Wikipedia has an interesting article on this plant.

4 comments:

Margaret said...

There are so many different elements in this photo. And an assortment of browns. Very nice.

JoJo said...

Isn't this the stuff that sea otters tether themselves to in the water?

me said...

add a little red sauce and?? :)

Andy said...

Looks like you got down and dirty to get this photo. Ever see any little creatures crawling out of the kelp?