Sea Palm
The sea palm (Postelsia palmaeformis) is a brown seaweed that looks like a miniature palm tree and grows on wave-battered rocks of the Pacific coast of North America. It lives in the most violent surf zone.
The sea palm (Postelsia palmaeformis) is a brown seaweed that looks like a miniature palm tree and grows on wave-battered rocks of the Pacific coast of North America. It lives in the most violent surf zone.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Sea Palm in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Diaphoretickes lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Flexing in the Surf
The hollow, flexible stalk bends in waves and snaps upright when the water recedes. A strong holdfast anchors the plant to the rock. It is the only species in its genus.
An Annual Gardener
Sea palms live a single season. Spores drop onto the rock beneath the parent, so the stands persist in the same places. Opening of bare space by mussels being torn away by storms lets new plants settle.
Harvest
The fronds are harvested for food, and regulations limit cutting to avoid destroying the stands. See Bull Kelp.
Sea Palm at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Postelsia palmaeformis |
| Kingdom | Chromista |
| Phylum | Heterokontophyta |
| Class | Phaeophyceae |
| Order | Laminariales |
| Family | Laminariaceae |
| Field Guide group | Diaphoretickes: Plants & Algae |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Miniature palm-tree-shaped seaweed up to 60 cm tall with a rubbery hollow stalk and a crown of drooping grooved blades; grows only on wave-pounded rocks. |
| IUCN Red List status | Not Evaluated (NE): no global IUCN assessment |
| Group | Brown algae (Laminariales) |
| Habitat | Wave-swept rocky shores |
See Also
- Bull Kelp — another Pacific kelp
- Bladderwrack — a shore seaweed