Iridescent Seaweed (Mazzaella splendens)

Description: Iridescent seaweed comes in many different shapes – circular, oval, wedge, heart, or lobed and may even have a split down it (or may not). These blades also come in many different colors from green to indigo to red. Across all these shapes and colors, the one commonality is the iridescent sheen they have when wet, almost an oily appearance. The blades can also reach an impressive 1.2 m long!

Habitat: Iridescent seaweed grows on rocks from the mid intertidal zone to shallow subtidal zone. It can live from southeast Alaska to Baja California, Mexico.

Tide Pool Tidbits:

• There might be lots of holes in the blades from snails feeding on the algae.

Reference: The New Beachcomber’s Guide to the Pacific Northwest by J Duane Sept