Appearance: Large olive-brown seaweed. The fronds have a midrib and serrated edges. They do not have gas bladders.
Depth: Lower shore.
Feeding: Toothed Wrack is a producer. It makes its own food by photosynthesis. It has chlorophyll just like most land plants. The brown colour is caused by other light catching pigments in the cells.
Environment: Toothed Wrack grows on rocky shores on western coasts. It needs a solid base for its holdfast. It grows on the lower shore where tides leave it uncovered for only a short time. Toothed Wrack does not grow on very exposed shores.
Other facts: Toothed Wrack is very common. The tips of the fronds have fruiting bodies in autumn and winter that produce tiny swimming sex cells. You can often find lots of simple animals living on the fronds e.g. sea-mats, tubeworms and hydroids.
Classification: Toothed Wrack is a member of the protoctista group brown algae.