Laminaria saccharina
Encyclopedia
Saccharina latissima is a brown algae
Brown algae
The Phaeophyceae or brown algae , is a large group of mostly marine multicellular algae, including many seaweeds of colder Northern Hemisphere waters. They play an important role in marine environments, both as food and for the habitats they form...

 (class Phaeophyceae), of the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Laminariaceae
Laminariaceae
Laminariaceae are a family of seaweeds, classified as brown algae. The table indicates the genera within this family. The family includes the largest known seaweeds: Nereocystis and Macrocystis....

. It is also known by the common name sea belt. It is found in the north east Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 and the Barents Sea
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...

 south to Galicia
Galicia
-Geographic regions:* Galicia , an autonomous community in northwestern Spain** Gallaecia, a province of the Roman Empire** Kingdom of Galicia, a medieval kingdom**Nueva Galicia :*** Nueva Galicia, a region of New Spain, now in Mexico...

 in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. It is not found in the Bay of Biscay
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...

 but is common round the coasts of the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

.

Description

S. latissima is a yellowish brown colour with a long narrow, undivided blade that can grow to three metres long and twenty centimetres wide. The central band is dimpled while the margins are smoother with a wavy edge. The frond is secured to the rock in the intertidal
Intertidal zone
The intertidal zone is the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide . This area can include many different types of habitats, with many types of animals like starfish, sea urchins, and some species of coral...

 and sublittoral zones by a claw-like holdfast
Holdfast
A holdfast is a root-like structure that anchors aquatic sessile organisms, such as seaweed, other sessile algae, stalked crinoids, benthic cnidarians, and sponges, to the substrate. ...

and a short, pliable, cylindrical stipe.
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