Candidate Species
Contact Person: Prof. Dr. Bela H. Buck
Sugar Kelp (Laminaria saccharina)
Laminaria saccharina is a yellow brown plant up to 2.5 m in length with a root-like holdfast, a short and flexible stipe, and an undivided laminate blade with parallel, undulated sides and an elongated, tongue-like appearance. The frond is characteristically dimpled with regular bullations (depressions).
Fig. 1: The Sugar Kelb (Laminaria saccharina)
Laminaria saccharina can be found in intertidal pools and in the shallow subtidal, becoming more abundant at low water in sheltered localities with partly strong current velocities. The global distribution is circumboreal from northern Russia to Galicia (Spain), but not known from Brittany to Galicia. This species is common on most shores of Britain and Ireland and can also be found on the Island of Helgoland within the German Bight.
Laminaria is the most abundantly produced genus of all macrophytic algae. Laminaria saccharina is commercially important and is often described to be a "Jack of all trades" due its various commercial potentials. Commercial use is e.g. in food ingredients, bio-absorption of heavy metals, cosmetics, …
In our research projects, we cultivate Laminaria saccharina on longlines and on offshore ring systems.