| Description: |
Brown seaweed, whose color ranges from brown to greenish brown to olive green. Sometimes named "sea spaghetti", but actually has a two-stage morphology. A small button-like frond is first produced, from which long, narrow, strap-like reproductive fronds are formed. The button stage is first club-shaped, then develops into a button shape two to four centimeters in diameter and slightly depressed in the middle, which is connected to the substrate by a short stipe and discoid holdfast. This saucer-shaped button, with a consistency like cartilage, is the perennial and vegetative part of the seaweed. 2 dichotomously branched strap-like reproductive fronds up to 2 or 3 meters in length and 1 centimeter wide are produced from the center of each button (in autumn), although plants have been observed with 1 to 4 straps. These fronds branch dichotomously three or four times and do not have air bladders. At the end of the seaweed's reproductive stage at the end of the summer, the fronds detach from their perennial base. New fronds begin growing from the same base during the winter. |
Species:
see species detailed info >
|
Himanthalia elongata (Linnaeus) S.F.Gray |
