Feather Boa

Egregia menziesii

Color: Brown (Olive)
Shape: Branching, Bushy
Texture: Bumpy
Size: Up to 30’+ 
Zone: Low Intertidal to Subtidal
Range: British Columbia to Mexico 

Description: This flamboyant seaweed consists of a thick midrib, fringed with small irregular blades on either side that are interspersed with round floats. Feather Boa has a large, branching holdfast and a stipe that is round at the holdfast, then branches and broadens to be an inch or two wide. Feather Boa can grow quite long.

Edibility: 

Distinctive characteristics: 

Collection notes: 

Phylum: Phaeophyta (Brown Algae)
Previous names: Fucus menziesii
Similar species:

Dulse, Red Ribbon, Red Kale

Palmaria mollis

Color: Red
Shape: Irregular Blades
Texture: Smooth
Size: 8–10”
Zone: Intertidal to Subtidal
Range: Alaska to Mexico

Description: The name “palmaria” comes from the hand-shaped arrangement of the blades. Irregular blades are attached to a small disc-shaped holdfast.

Edibility: Versatile. Leathery when dried. High in iron and other vitamins and minerals. Eaten in Scandinavia and the British Isles by people and sheep.

Distinctive characteristics:

Collection notes: 

Phylum: Rhodophyta (Red Algae)
Previous names: Palmaria palmata forma Mollis, Rhodymenia palmata
Similar species: Palmaria pinannatifida, Rhodymenia pertusa, Palmaria callophylloides, Palmeria hecatensis

Dead Man’s Fingers, Sea Sac

Halosaccion glandiforme

Color: Red, Brown, Green (Dark Purple-Red to Golden Brown to Yellow-Green)  
Shape: Pod-like 
Texture: Smooth
Size: Up to 8”
Zone: Intertidal
Range: Alaska to California

Description: These elongated, pod-shaped sacs are filled with seawater with a bubble of gas trapped at the top. Clusters grow on rocks, secured by a small disc-shaped holdfasts. 

Edibility: Edible

Distinctive characteristics: If you squeeze them, they will squirt water. However, the water is needed for the seaweed to survive when the tide is out. 

Collection notes: 

Phylum: Rhodophyta (Red Algae)
Previous names: Ulva glandiformis
Similar species:

Bull Kelp, Bullwhip Kelp

Nereocyctis luetkeana

Color: Brown (Golden or Dark)
Shape: Branching, Tube-like
Texture: Smooth
Size: Up to 100’+
Zone: Subtidal
Range: Alaska to California

Description: This large seaweed begins with a large, branching holdfast supporting a long, hollow stipe that starts narrow and widens at the top, ending in a tennis-ball shaped float. Attached to the float are long, flat blades a few inches wide and up to 30 feet long. The blades are arranged in two groups like pig-tails and tend to trail on the surface of the water. 

Edibility: Delicious! The stipe makes tasty pickles. Blades taste salty, but the flavor comes from the high potassium content. Blades are delicate when dried. 

Distinctive characteristics: The floats are filled with gas, including the toxic carbon monoxide. 

Collection notes: Boat required.

Phylum: Phaeophyta (Brown Algae)
Previous names: Fucus luetkeanus
Similar species: Durvillaea antartica

Bleach Weed

Prionitis lanceolata

Color: Red (Purple)
Shape: Branching
Texture: Smooth
Size: 10–15”
Zone: Intertidal
Range: Alaska to Mexico

Description: Bleach weed is narrow at the base, then branches into flat blades, fringed irregularly with small blade-lets that seem to be attached at an angle with the main blade rather than flush. The holdfast is disc-shaped. 

Edibility: 

Distinctive characteristics: Smells like bromine. 

Collection notes: 

Phylum: Rhodophyta (Red Algae)
Previous names: Gelidium lanceolatum, Zanardinula lanceolata
Similar species: