Seaweed
Seaweed or macroalgae refers to several species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of red, brown, and green macroalgae. Marine algae species such as kelps provide essential nursery habitat for fisheries and other marine species and thus protect food sources; ocean algae species from seaweeds to planktons play a vital role in carbon capture, producing up to 90 percent of the planet's oxygen. Understanding these roles provides guiding principles for conservation and sustainable use of seaweeds to take precedence over industrial exploitation. Mechanical dredging of kelp, for instance, destroys the resource and dependent fisheries. Certain species of seaweed are valuable for nutrition, biomedicine, bioremediation, and other uses.
Phycodrys rubens
"Phycodrys rubens" is seaweed which is perennial and can grow to 30 cm long and is strongly red in colour. It grows with flat leaf-like blades which are monostromatic, that is composed of a single flat layer of cells and can grow 3 cm wide. These blades can become 3 cm wide and show a clear mid-rib. The blades have a ruffled margin with veins growing out from the central mid-rib with paired lateral veins. The plants grow from a small disk holdfast with an axis to the blades.
The algae are somewhat similar to "Delesseria sanguinea" which is also strongly red but has a smooth, not dentate, margin. The shape of the frond is similar to the leaf of an Oak tree.