ETYM Latin, seaweed.
(Irregular plural: algae).
Primitive chlorophyll-containing mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves; SYN. algae.
Seaweed; pl. division of cryptogamic plants.

A group of aquatic plants having no roots, stems, or leaves.
(singular alga) Diverse group of plants (including those commonly called seaweeds) that shows great variety of form, ranging from single-celled forms to multicellular seaweeds of considerable size and complexity.
Marine algae help combat global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis.
Because of their diversity, botanists have established seven separate algae groupings or divisions, belonging to three different kingdoms: Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) of the kingdom Monerans; Chrysophyta (golden algae diatoms), Englenophyta (plidosynthetic flagellates) and Pyrrophyta (dinoflagellates) of the kingdom Protists; and Rhodophyta (red algae), Phaeophyta (brown algae), and Chlorophyta (green algae) of the kingdom Plants.
Microscopic plants which contain chlorophyll and live floating or suspended in water. They also may be attached to structures, rocks or other submerged surfaces. They are food for fish and small aquatic animals. Excess algal growths can impart tastes and odors to potable water. Algae produce oxygen during sunlight hours and use oxygen during the night hours. Their biological activities appreciably affect the pH and dissolved oxygen of the water + prikaži više

Plant growing in the sea, especially marine algae.
Any of a vast collection of marine and freshwater, simple, multicellular plant forms belonging to the algae and found growing from about high-water mark to depths of 100–200 m/300–600 ft. Some have holdfasts, stalks, and fronds, sometimes with air bladders to keep them afloat, and are green, blue-green, red, or brown.
Many have traditionally been gathered for food, such as purple laver Porphyra umbilicalis, green laver Ulva lactuca, and carragheen moss Chondrus crispus. From the 1960s, seaweeds have been farmed, and the alginates extracted are used in convenience foods, ice cream, and animal feed, as well as in toothpaste, soap, and the manufacture of iodine and glass.
The ribbonlike seaweed Undaria arrived in the Mediterranean in the 1980s from Japan attached to imported oysters and is now being grown by the French for export to the Asian market. + prikaži više