Seaweed Species Classification

Seaweeds are a family of about 65,000 living species - a hundred or so, eaten by man. They are scattered in 8% of the total ocean’s habitat, however, sustainable seaweed farming is offering unique new environments where some seaweed species have adapted well to ‘hanging-out’ - therefore making them more sustainable, and more widely available.

Seaweeds are single cell organisms, which I imagine have worlds of vibrating activity going on within them, for they continually supply oxygen, organic carbohydrates, fats, and proteins for other living creatures. Essentially, seaweed are considered the ‘oldest’ living form on earth.

Seaweed Classifications

You can differentiate between the seaweed species by their color - red, brown, green, and blue-green. Their color is determined by the amount of sunlight that reaches them.

The brown seaweed or kelp, loves the deepest depth of the ocean, where they live with about 1,000 species. The green seaweeds prefer a little less deeper ocean depth where they are about 5,000 different species. The red seaweed likes to live closer to the surface and includes about 2,500 different species. (This book does not include any recipes for the red seaweeds).The blue-green algae, also know as spirulina, or chlorella (not covered in this book) comprises unknown thousands of species.

Each species of Seaweed also has a Latin name, however, for our purpose; we will focus on seaweeds that are either brown (Kelp) or green. Nevertheless, I have included a list of the Latin names of the more common brown seaweeds, and highlighted the large brown kelp, which might help you determine your local varieties of kelp. Read more: Order Book →