#15 Bull Kelp

#15 Bull Kelp

Common Name: Bull Kelp/bullwhip kelp

Description

- About 5 feet in length

- Dark green and brown in color

- It has rootlike holdfasts, which contain haptera which help anchor the plant to the rocks

- From the holdfast, a flexible stem extends several feet upward gradually expanding to form a bulb at the top of the plant.

- Bull kelp grows together forming thick canopies of kelp that can grow up to 115 feet tall

Taxonomy

- Kingdom: Chromalveolata

- Phylum: Hterokontophyta

- Class: Phaeophyceae

- Order: Laminariales

- Family: Laminariaceae

- Genus: Nereocystis

- Species: N. luetkeana

Ecology

- Bull kelp is an annual seaweed, meaning it grows from a spore to maturity within a single year.

- It can grow up to ten inches a day and it produces spores in spore patches (sori), which ensure that the spores settle near the parent plant and on suitable terrain.

- The bull kelp gets washed on to the beach by storms, it then dries out and turns brown making it look like a whip.

- It thrives in rough coastal waters and grows in thick, dense canopies.

- Bull kelp is harvested and used in a variety of products including; fertilizers, dog food, shampoo, moisturizer and herbal remedies.