Alaria esculenta also known as "dabberlocks, badderlocks, or winged kelp" is an edible seaweed being a traditional food along the coasts of the far north of the Atlantic. This can be eaten cooked or fresh in Greenland, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland. Of the twelve existing species Alaria this is the one that occurs both in Ireland and in the British Isles with a distinct midrib and is the only one with sporangia borne at the base of the frond in special leaflets called sporophylls.

It usually grows on rocks, in very exposed locations, at low tide and in the subtidal surface, but also occur in tidal pools at the bottom coast. The reproductive structures, apparent as dark-brown areas, are confined to unbranched leafy appendages borne on the stipe, usually in two rows.