Sea Palm

At a glance

Sea Palm (Postelsia palmiformis) is a marine alga with specific harvest rules tracked in 1 of 66 jurisdictions covered by CatchRules.

Confirmed by 3,630 research-grade iNaturalist observations, with California, Oregon, and British Columbia the top jurisdictions by observation count.

Notable details

• Sea palm is the only kelp that grows upright like a miniature palm tree, reaching up to 24 inches tall.
• It thrives only on the most violently wave-exposed rocky shores, from British Columbia to central California.
• Its flexible stipe bends nearly flat in breaking waves and springs back upright without tearing.
• Sea palm completes its entire life cycle — from spore to spore — within a single year.
• It colonizes bare rock after disturbances displace competitors like mussels and larger algae.

Where Sea Palm are seen

• California2,405 iNat obs
• Oregon811 iNat obs
• British Columbia372 iNat obs
• Washington42 iNat obs

Jurisdictions with rules for Sea Palm

• CaliforniaUnited States · official source

Background

Postelsia palmaeformis, also known as the sea palm (not to be confused with the southern sea palm) or palm seaweed, is a species of kelp and classified within brown algae. The sea palm is found along the western coast of North America, on rocky shores with constant waves. It is one of the few algae that can survive and remain erect out of the water; in fact, it spends most of its life cycle…

Background excerpt adapted from Wikipedia's Sea Palm article (CC BY-SA). Visit Wikipedia for the full entry.

Other brown algae/kelps on CatchRules

• RockweedFucus distichus
• Saw WrackFucus serratus
• Sea CauliflowerLeathesia marina
• OarweedLaminaria digitata