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.
Endocladia muricata
"E. muricata" is common north of Point Conception, and is one of the most common algae in the high intertidal zone of the central California, coast. It commonly forms the top-most conspicuous band of seaweed along that coast. "E. muricata" often grows with "Pelvetiopsis limitata" (dwarf rockweed) and "Mastocarpus papillatus" (Turkish washcloth), on rocks in the high intertidal.
"E. muricata"'s thallus is 4–8 cm tall, short & bushy; branches cylindrical with sub-dichotomous branching; covered with minute, soft conical spines; blackish-brown to dark red to yellow. Dries to almost black. It is usually not slippery to walk on, dry or wet.