Alaria esculenta is a common brown seaweed that can grow up to 2m whose name means “edible wings”. It has a wavy membranous lamina, the frond is unbranched and tapers towards the end.  It’s color can also be yellowish, yellow-brown, olive-green and olive-brown.

 It has distinctive fleshy flat reproductive “leaflets” growing sideways from the plant’s stipe. These leaflets are called sporophylls and, unlike many other fucoids, they grow at the protected position at the base of the stipe.