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Name derivation:

Laminaria : L. lamina: blade or a thin blade

digitata= L. digitatus: digitate, with leaflets radiating from leaf base, like fingers on a hand;

Laminaria digitata- common names= devil’s apron, horsetail kelp, fingered kelp, kelp, oar weed, sea girdle, sea tangle, and tangle weed

The genus Laminaria includes some species that are now placed in the genus Saccharina (e.g. Laminaria saccharina).

Classification:

Laminaria J.V.Lamouroux 1813; there are 263 species of which 26 have been taxonomically accepted

Order Laminariales; Family Laminariaceae

Morphology:

A flattened blade with a strong holdfast, stiff stipe and a digitate or finger-like dissected blade.

Apospory forms diploid gametophytes:

Apospory has been observed in several Laminaria spp., including development of a diploid gametophyte from dedifferentiated sporophyte cells of L. japonica (Notoya and Aruga 1992).

Similar genera:

Saccharina, Saccorhiza

Habitat:

Found on solid outcrops or very large boulders. Growing in the extreme lower littoral zone and shallow sublittoral of exposed open coastal and a few estuarine tidal rapid sites.

References:

Guiry, M.D., and G.M. Guiry 2013. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 16 January 2013.

Lamouroux, J.V.F. 1813. Essai sur les genres de la famille des thalassiophytes non articulées. Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 20: 21-47, 115-139, 267-293, pls 7-13.

Notoya, M. and . Aruga 1992. Formation of aposporous gametophytes from dedifferentiated young sporophyte cells of Laminaria japonica Areschoug (Laminariales, Phaeophyta). La mer 30: 89-91.

Taylor, W. R. 1957. Marine Algae of the Northeastern Coast of North America. Revised edition. Univ. Michigan Press., Ann Arbor, ix + 509 pp.