| Alaria esculenta | |
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Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Diaphoretickes |
| Clade: | SAR |
| Clade: | Stramenopiles |
| Phylum: | Gyrista |
| Subphylum: | Ochrophytina |
| Class: | Phaeophyceae |
| Order: | Laminariales |
| Family: | Alariaceae |
| Genus: | Alaria |
| Species: | A. esculenta |
| Binomial name | |
| Alaria esculenta | |
Alaria esculenta is an edibleseaweed, also known asdabberlocks orbadderlocks, orwingedkelp, and occasionally asAtlanticWakame. It is a traditional food along the coasts of the far northAtlantic Ocean. It may be eaten fresh or cooked inGreenland,Iceland,Scotland andIreland. It is the only one of twelve species ofAlaria to occur in bothIreland and inGreat Britain.
Grows to a maximum length of 2 m. The wholefrond is brown and consists of a distinct midrib with wavy membranous lamina up to 7 cm wide on either side. The frond is unbranched[1] and tapers towards the end. The base has a shortstipe arising from a rhizoidalholdfast. The stipe may bear severalsporophylls which are club-shaped and up to 20 cm long and 5 cm broad which bear thespores.
It grows from a short cylindricalstipe attached to the rocks by a holdfast of branching root-likerhizoids and grows to about 20 cm long. The stipe is continued into the frond forming a long conspicuous midrib, all other large and unbranched brown algae to be found in the British Isles are without a mid-rib. The lamina is thin, membranous with a wavy margin.[2][3]
Sporangia grow in club shaped narrow leafy outgrowths produced near the base growing from the stipe. These grow to 20 cm long and 5 cm broad.[1][4]
Alaria esculenta is well known inIreland, where it is known as Láir or Láracha, and in the rest of theBritish Isles[5] save the south and east ofEngland. It is perennial.[6]
It is a common large algae on shores where there is severe wave exposure[7] attached to rocks just below low-watermark in the "Laminaria belt", and is common on rocky shores in exposed places.[8][9] It has a fairly high intrinsic growth rate compared to other algae, 5.5% per day and a carrying capacity of about 2 kg wet weight per square meter. It may reach lengths of about 2.5 m. It overlaps to a small degree (+) in distribution withFucus serratus and somewhat more withLaminaria digitata. It has low and high light limitation values of about 5 and 70 W per square meter respectively. Its distribution is also limited by salinity, wave exposure, temperature, desiccation and general stress. These, and other attributes of the algae are summarized in Lewis (1964) and Seip 1980.[10][11][12]
Leaf-likesporophylls develop from the stipe and producezoospores.[2]
A. esculenta may producephlorotannins andoxidized lipids as protective functions against highphotosynthetically active and UV radiations.[13]
It is host to thepathogenic fungusPhycomelaina laminariae.[14]
Europe: AtlanticFrance,Channel Islands,Britain,Ireland,Netherlands,Heligoland,Baltic,Iceland,Faroes,Norway andSvalbard;North America:New York,New England,Maritime Provinces,Newfoundland,Quebec,Labrador,Alaska,Canadian Arctic andGreenland;Asia:Japan,Korea,Kuriles,Sakhalin andKamchatka.[5]
Authority control databases: National |
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