Sea truffle (Polysiphonia spp.)
Common name: tufted weed
Scientific name: Polysiphonia spp.
Locations: middle intertidal areas as an epiphyte on ascophyllum, knotted wrack
Seasonality: available all year
Colors: deep red-brown
Size: tufts are 1” - 2" long arranged in clusters along a string of knotted wrack
Collected: by hand
Quantity: 1 pint volume
Common name: tufted weed
Scientific name: Polysiphonia spp.
Locations: middle intertidal areas as an epiphyte on ascophyllum, knotted wrack
Seasonality: available all year
Colors: deep red-brown
Size: tufts are 1” - 2" long arranged in clusters along a string of knotted wrack
Collected: by hand
Quantity: 1 pint volume
Common name: tufted weed
Scientific name: Polysiphonia spp.
Locations: middle intertidal areas as an epiphyte on ascophyllum, knotted wrack
Seasonality: available all year
Colors: deep red-brown
Size: tufts are 1” - 2" long arranged in clusters along a string of knotted wrack
Collected: by hand
Quantity: 1 pint volume
Tufted weed growing on rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum).
Tidepool Tim says, “Polysiphonia grows on knotted wrack like a little hitchhiker. It does no harm to the Ascophyllum it just uses it as a place to attach and grow - kind of like vines growing on large trees in the rainforest. In order to find this tufted weed, I must search and search along the beaches in the large knotted wrack beds. this is very slippery work and i tend to frequently fall off my feet. Sometimes it is very easy to locate and at other times it may take an hour to find the right place and spot the little tufts hanging from the rockweed. This seaweed is an epiphyte.”
