For those of us fortunate enough to leave our homes and explore outdoors, it is an opportunity to slow down and become more observant of the natural world around us. We might even encounter things we may not have noticed before?
This happened to me recently while wandering along the shoreline at low tide. I happened to look down at my feet and see this beautiful collection of sea algae. Just look at the variety of shapes, colors and textures in the space of just two square feet!
Known as the "wrack" it consists of sea vegetation carried and deposited ashore during storms or high tide. A world in itself, it provides shelter and harbors all kinds of tasty little creatures for birds and animals to feed upon. The same holds true in the ocean depths before it ends its life on land.
It is also easy to see why sea algae are sometimes called "sea vegetables". I was immediately reminded of what appeared to be a carrot, lots of peas and a very large onion! But what is really here?
What I have subsequently learned is there are three major groups of sea algae: red, green and brown. Here we predominantly have a selection of kelp (a type of seaweed), which falls within the brown group and I have labeled accordingly in the image below.
If you see anything I have missed or incorrectly identified, I welcome your comments!