Fucus serratus, Fucaceae
A couple of weeks ago the weather was good enough to spend an afternoon at the beach, so we headed to one of our favourite ones, the popular Troon beach on the west coast of Scotland. Although generally quite busy on a sunny day, the sandy shore is so long you can virtually find a spot with nobody in sight at any time, if you walk long enough. On the way to our usual corner I suddenly realised I still haven’t described a single seaweed! I went to explore the closest rocky tidal pools and the first one I saw was rightfully one of the most typical, given the location and its features.
Toothed or serrated wrack is a brown alga which thrives on the rocky littoral area of the entire British Isles, but its areal spans from Portugal to Norway on the Atlantic coast of Europe. It grows smaller than the related and similar bladder wrack, F. vesciculosus, more noticeable due to its inflated air bladders, but both are edible and can be used as they are or dry as a savoury condiment. Although more often harvested for use in cosmetic products than for food, here in Scotland they have also traditionally been used to produce a fertiliser rich in nitrogen.