Alaria esculenta is an edible seaweed, also known as dabberlocks or badderlocks, or winged kelp. It is a traditional food along the coasts of the far north Atlantic Ocean. It may be eaten fresh or cooked in Greenland, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland. It is the only one of twelve species of Alaria to occur in the British Isles.

Description

Grows to a maximum length of 2 m. The whole frond is brown and consists of a distinct midrib with wavy membranous lamina up to 7 cm wide on either side. The frond is unbranchedand tapers towards the end. The base has a short stipe arising from a rhizoidal holdfast. The stipe may bear several sporophylls which are club-shaped and up to 20 cm long and 5 cm broad which bear the spores.

It grows from a short cylindrical stipe attached to the rocks by a holdfast of branching root-like rhizoids and grows to about 20 cm long. The stipe is continued into the frond forming a long conspicuous midrib, all other large and unbranched brown algae to be found in the British Isles are without a mid-rib. The lamina is thin, membranous with a wavy margin.

Distribution and ecology

Alaria esculenta is well known in the British Isles save the south and east of England. It is perennial.

It is a common large algae on shores where there is severe wave exposure attached to rocks just below low-watermark in the "Laminaria belt", and is common on rocky shores in exposed places.

Leaf-like sporophylls develop from the stipe and produce zoospores.

World Distribution

Europe: Greenland, Iceland, Faroes, Norway, France, Helgoland, Netherlands. North America: Alaska, Labrador and Massachusetts.

References

External links

• M. Indergaard & J. Minsaas (1991). Seaweed Resources in Europe. ISBN 0-471-92947-6.
• F. G. Hardy & M. D. Guiry (2003). A Check-list and Atlas of the Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland. ISBN 0-9527115-1-6.
• Alaria or edible kelp (Alaria esculenta). Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick. .
• M. D. Guiry & Wendy Guiry Alaria esculenta (Linnaeus) Greville. AlgaeBase. .