Sea Cauliflower (Leathesia marina) seems to be a relatively easy to identify seaweed with relatively thick flesh growing in lumpy masses. It was abundant at John Brown’s beach early this summer, though I’ve not been familiar with it long enough to have a sense of how common it is more generally in the area. The Seaweeds of Alaska book indicates it is an annual species.
Questions:
- What process allows a spore to stick to the rocks even though waves are consistently washing over?
- How far do spores of this algae disperse?
- When it is growing, is each of the lumps starting from an individual starting spore, or do they spread into multiple lumps?