Appearance: Dark olive-brown with an obvious midrib and pairs of gas-filled bladders.
Depth: Middle shore.
Feeding: Bladder Wrack is a producer. It makes its own food by photosynthesis. It has chlorophyll just like most land plants. Its brown colour is due to other light catching pigments in its cells.
Environment: Bladder Wrack grows on rocky bottoms using a holdfast to cling on. It can cope with drying out, using a slimy mucus to cut down water loss when the tide is out. When the tide is in, it uses the bladders to float near to the surface to compete for light. It can survive exposed shores and can grow in estuaries.
Other facts: This alga is sometimes called popweed. Can you guess why?
Classification: Bladder Wrack is a member of the protoctista group brown algae.