Florida Seaweed Jeopardy

Green Algae

100

Brilliant white when bleached in sun.

What is cactus algae?

200

6 in long, yellow rhizome, with green branches bearing stubby branchlets

What is Grape Caulerpa

300

2 in spheres occasionally covered with encrusting algae of other types

Sailors eye

400

12 inches long. Has forked green fingers attached to a single holdfast

Green fleece

500

4 inch long, growing algae are firmly anchored by their stiff stalk to a mass of rhizoids

Shaving brush algae

Brown Algae

100

Turns dark brown on beach.

What is pelagic sargassum?

200

 Individual or clustered bubble balls that appear partially flattened 

Balloon seaweed

300

Fan shaped fronds with an in-rolled outer margin

Padina

400

Flat, olive-brown fronds with smooth margins and blunt tips that fork into two

Dictyota

500

Beach as golden bouquets of pyramid-shape fronds

Three-cornered hat algae

Did You Know?

100

Have bitter chemicals that discourage grazing by fish

What is iridescent-banded algae?

200

Photosynthetic pigment that absorbs blue light

Red algae 

300

contain sugars and protein for bouyancy

bubble branchlets of red grapes

400

end point for pelagic sargassum 

Mid Atlantic Sargasso Sea 

500

what most of the white beach in the keys is made of

Cactus algae 

Red Algae

100

Where branching coralline algae grows?

What is shallow seagrass beds?

200

tiny, stiff, pointed branchlets in whorls of three

Red spineweed

300

Numerous bubble like branchlets 

Red grapes

400

Flat forked branches rooted at a single holdfast

Thicket algae 

500

Branch tips frequently end in sickle hooks

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