The author looking through holes in the midrib of a Pleurophycus gardneri :  notice wrinkled edges

Pleurophycus. gardneri (upper right) showing dark blade and lighter midrib. plus two other brown algae species

Description:  This plant is dark olive brown to black in colour, blade-like with a broad flat unbranched lamina up to 90 cm. long and 40 cm. wide at the end of a stout stipe up to 40 cm. long.  The stipe is flattened above where it is attached to the blade and becomes cylindrical below near the branched root-like holdfast.  The blade has a smooth undulate margin and is usually eroded away at the outer end; it has a rounded or cuneate base.  A conspicuous median, flat midrib up to 4 cm. wide runs the full length of the blade and merges into the stipe.  Delicate wrinkles occur along both sides of the midrib, and these merge into the ruffled undulate margins.
Habitat:  On rocks in the lower intertidal zone and upper subtidal zones.Pacific Coast Distribution:  Alaska to Oregon.—-Robert Scagel, 1972

Phylum: Phaeophyta
Class: Phaeophyceae
Order: Laminariales
Family: Laminariaceae
Genus: Pleurophycus
Species gardneri
Pleurophycus gardneri
(Setchell and Saunders)
Other Phaeophytes or Brown Algae at Race Rocks

Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomy and Image File

The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams. Ryan Murphy, 2005