the.com/kelp
the ocean's skyscraper, growing two feet a day without ever touching soil
means Kelp is a large brown seaweed that grows in dense underwater forests along cool, rocky coastlines.
from From Middle English 'culpe' or 'kilpe,' a word of obscure beginnings whose deeper roots are genuinely unknown. For centuries 'kelp' named not the living plant but the ash left after burning seaweed — a gray, mineral-rich residue prized for the soda and potash it yielded, used in making glass and soap. Only later did the word drift seaward to mean the dripping plant itself.
- growth speed
- Can grow up to 18 inches in a single day
- not a plant
- It's a brown algae, no roots required
- forest builder
- Kelp forests shelter thousands of marine species
- buoyancy trick
- Gas-filled bladders float fronds toward sunlight
- carbon eater
- Sequesters CO2 faster than tropical rainforests
bull kelp of alaska — nereocystis luetkeana dominates the cold waters of southeast alaska and creates dense underwater forests
kombu kelp of japan — saccharina japonica harvested extensively in japan, used for dashi stock and worth billions in aquaculture