Photo: Chris Teague, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Nereocystis luetkeana
Bull kelp
- Also called Bull kelp, Bullwhip kelp, Ribbon kelp
Annual brown seaweed, up to about 30 m long
What it is
Bull kelp is not a tree or a plant in the usual sense. It is a large brown seaweed, a kind of alga. It grips the rocky seabed with a root-like holdfast and sends one long, hollow stem up to the surface, where a round gas-filled float holds up a bunch of long, ribbon-like blades. Most of it lives for a single year, growing to full length in one summer. It grows along the Pacific coast of North America, from Alaska to California.
What it's used for
- Bull kelp forests shelter and feed rockfish, young salmon, crabs, abalone and sea urchins, and sea otters rest among the floats.
- Coastal peoples of the Northwest have long used its long, hollow stems as fishing lines.
- It takes up carbon and nutrients as it grows, though how much carbon stays locked away for long is still being studied.
Where we plant it
Our partners plant the mix of native species that suits each site and season, so a gift plants trees in the project rather than this one species. Nereocystis luetkeana is one of the species planted there.
Other species we plant
Mangrove Restoration in Kenya
4 species
Pollinator Agroforestry in Haiti
16 species
Pigeon pea (pwa kongo)Yellow mombin (monben)Candelabra spurgeMoringa (benzolive)Red mombin (siwèl)Cassava (manyòk)Mesquite or bayahondeSpanish cedar (sèd)Cacao, the chocolate treeSour orange (zoranj si)Papaya (papay)Arabica coffee (kafe)Avocado (zaboka)Lemon (sitwon)Coconut palm (kokoye)Breadfruit (lam veritab)
Rebuilding Oregon's Forests
5 species
Reforestation in Tamil Nadu, India
37 species
LimeberryBaheda or Beleric myrobalanBig-fruited jamunSouth Indian suregadaJamun, Naval or Black plumDevil pepper or Wild snakerootWoody-fruited PterospermumCork-leaved bayurVengai, Vijaysar or Indian kinoCeylon boxwoodCorky debbar treePanakka treeWinged naringi, a wild citrusPamburus, a wild citrus relativeElumbotti, the bone-knit shrubClimbing olaxBakul, Magizham or Spanish cherryKaya or Ironwood treeNotched-leaf spike thornPalai, Palu or KhirniPointed-leaf jasmineIndian screw tree or ValampuriGrewia, a dry-country shrubGrewia, a dry-forest shrubOrangeberry or KonjiGarlic fruit or Bitter garciniaHairy fig or PeyattiWild karanda or ConkerberryCansjera, a native forest climberShining bush-violetVagai or Siris treeUsilai or Krishna sirisChokkalai or Droopy leafWild lime or Kattu elumichaiKorinti, a custard-apple relativeIndian allophylus or TitberryLolly berry or Saptarangi
