Description: Thallus up to 4 m long, attached to rock by strong terete stipe and haptera. Long leatherly blade, unbranched and without a midrib about 15 cms wide, flat but wrinkley with a wavy margins.

Habitat: Common and abundant. In low littoral rock pools and the sublittoral to below 20 m.

Distribution: Widespread all around the shores of the British Isles from the Shetlands to the Channel Islands. Europe: Portugal, Atlantic coasts of Spain and France, Netherlands, Helgoland, Baltic Sea, Norway, Sweden, Faroes, Jan Mayen and Bjornoya, Spitzbergen and Iceland. Greenland. Atlantic coast of North America: Canada, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connetricut and Long Island, Pacific coast of North America fron Alaska to California.

Similar Species: Alaria esculenta has a midrib.

Key Identification Features:

• Large size and wrinkled blade.

Distribution Map from NBN: Laminaria saccharina at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Laminaria saccharina at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

WoRMS: Laminaria saccharina at World Register of Marine Species. Accepted name: Saccharina latissima (Linnaeus) C.E.Lane, C.Mayes, Druehl & G.W.Saunders, 2006. AphiaID: 234483.

Classification: Biota; Chromista; Harosa; Heterokonta; Ochrophyta; Phaeophyceae; Fucophycidae; Laminariales; Laminariaceae; Laminaria