The "Bewildering Brush"

  
  FHL Marine Botany  ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::   Taxonomy | Habitat | Morphology | Life History | Ecology | In + Around
 

 

Habitat

Where am I?

 

 

  

Odonthalia floccosa is found in the mid to low intertidal in the North Pacific, specifically from the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands in Alaska to Santa Barbara County in California (1). Many of the specimens on this website were found around Friday Harbor Labs and Cattle Point, San Juan Island, WA. Additional material was photographed at Botanical Beach on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. It is often epilithic but can be epizoic, as shown in the picture of the decorator crab. I have often found it in or near tidepools in both exposed and protected environments.

Odonthalia

Botanical Beach, Vancouver Island: most of the dark algal mass in the pool is a very bushy Odonthalia.

Botany Beach crab

Botanical Beach: a decorator crab with style! Crab carapace shell width ~2cm.

 

 

 

Distribution

Distribution of Odonthalia floccosa.

  

Submerged Odonthalia floccosa at Botanical Beach, Vancouver Island, BC. Picture width ~16 cm.

Looking down on Odonthalia with Fucus (rockweed) in a tidepool at Friday Harbor Labs, WA. Picture width ~15 cm.

rocky shore

Rocky shore environment of Odonthalia.


 
 

References

1) Druehl, Louis. Pacific Seaweeds. Maderia Park, BC Canada: Harbour Publishing, 2003.

  
    Website created by Audrey Djunaedi in May 2009 as the final project for Biol 445 Marine Botany, Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington. All images created by the author unless noted otherwise. Photo permission/questions may be directed to auddju "-at-" u. washington.edu.