Looking like a wonderful blue carpet with a golden fern pattern, Japweed Sargassum muticum (Yendo) Fensholt, was particularly decorative at Ringstead Bay in Dorset one hot July day. Here are some photographs of this alien species of seaweed floating near the surface in still, shallow water near the beach. The yellow-green fronds contrast well with the deep reflected blue from the cloudless sky above. Sometimes other types of red and green algae can be seen through the clear water on the seabed below; and brown fucoids are visible in above the water surface on the rocky platform just offshore.
You can see more pictures of Japweed from along the Jurassic Coast in the earlier posts:
Revision of a post first published 5 December 2009
COPYRIGHT JESSICA WINDER 2011
All Rights Reserved
Jessica's Nature Blog 
One Reply to “Floating Japweed at Ringstead Bay”