Of dead man's fingers, cord weed and hanging wrack: common brown seaweeds of the Cape Peninsula

Abstract

In this, the second in the series on common intertidal seaweeds of the Cape Peninsula, we look at the brown seaweeds common to our rocky shores, with the exception of kelp, which will be covered in the next issue of Veld & Flora. Unlike the green seaweeds mentioned in the previous issue, these brown seaweeds are generally slower growing and are less tolerant of salinity and temperature extremes and thus more prone to desiccation stress. They therefore tend to occur lower down on the shore than the green seaweeds.