Channelled Wrack

Pelvetia grows to a maximum length of 15 centimetres (6 in) in dense tufts, the fronds being deeply channeled on one side: the channels and a mucus layer help prevent the seaweed drying (desiccation) when the tide is out. It is irregularly dichotomously branched with terminal receptacles, and is dark brown in color. Each branch is of uniform width and without a midrib. The receptacles are forked at the tips. It is distinguished from other large brown algae by the channels along the frond. It has no mid-rib, no air-vesicles and no cryptostomata. It forms the uppermost zone of algae on the shore growing at or above high-water mark. The reproductive organs form swollen, irregularly shaped receptacles at the end of the branches. The conceptacles are hermaphrodite and borne within the receptacles at the apices.

Pelvetia canaliculata is common on the Atlantic shores of Europe from Iceland to Spain, including Norway, Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France and Portugal. In Ireland, collection of Pelvetia canaliculata (Irish: dúlamán) has been recorded as a source of sustenance during times of famine. A popular Irish folk song, Dúlamán, describes events transpiring between two people who collected the seaweed as a profession.

Both sexes occur in the same plant, the reproductive structures develop at the apices. The receptacles are swollen during the summer and are yellowish-green at maturity.