Description: Thallus tough and leathery, up to 15 cms long growing in tufts. Dichotomously branched all branches deeply channelled on one side, the receptacles terminal.

Habitat: Very common. Epilithic growing in tufts at high water and in the splash zone.

Distribution: Widely distributed around the shores of the British Isles. Europe: Portugal, Spain, France, Netherlands, Baltic, Norway, Faroes and Iceland. Further afield: the Arctic Seas including the White Sea and the west coast of Greenland in Baffin Bay.

Key Identification Features:

• Readily identified by its channelled frond and its high position on the shore line. The species shows little variation.

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

iNaturalist: Pelvetia canaliculata at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

WoRMS: Pelvetia canaliculata at World Register of Marine Species. Accepted name: Pelvetia canaliculata (Linnaeus) Decaisne & Thuret, 1845. AphiaID: 145550.

Classification: Biota; Chromista; Harosa; Heterokonta; Ochrophyta; Phaeophyceae; Fucophycidae; Fucales; Fucaceae; Pelvetia