Pacific Rockweed (Fucus distichus)

Description: Pacific rockweed is a type of brown algae found amongst the tide pools of Haystack Rock. Pacific rockweed grows in a forked branching pattern and is a darker brown color with olive or yellow-brown tips. The tips of its branches swell as they mature into air bladders, and they gain a bumpy texture. Like other seaweed species, Pacific rockweed fastens to substrate with its holdfast. On average, it grows to be about 25 centimeters (almost 10 inches) long.

Habitat: This common species of seaweed has quite the geographic range; it’s found in the Arctic Ocean, the Bering Sea, from the Aleutian Islands to central California, and along the coastlines of Japan and Russia.

Tide Pool Tidbits:

• Each part of Pacific rockweed is edible, but people tend to prefer using the freshly-grown tips in teas. To incorporate rockweed into tea, the tips must be chopped, dried, and turned into powder. It seems best to do this in the Spring when rockweed is actively growing fresh tips.

• Pacific rockweed contributes to tide pool ecosystems by providing shelter for marine invertebrates and other algae species; dense canopies of rockweed protect these organisms from being battered by waves or from desiccating (AKA drying out). 

• Common grazers of rockweed include mollusks like periwinkle snails and false limpets.

• There are other species of algae with the name “rockweed,” but they tend to look much different from the Pacific rockweed species.

Reference: Central Coast Biodiversity