Sea lettuce facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sea lettuce
Ulva lactuca Illustration from Sowerby's English botany 1790-1814, by James Sowerby
Scientific classification
Phylum:	Chlorophyta
Class:	Ulvophyceae
Order:	Ulvales
Family:	Ulvaceae
Genus:	Ulva Linnaeus, 1753
Species
See text
Synonyms
Enteromorpha Link in Nees, 1820

Ulva intestinalis

Sea lettuce is a type of green algae that looks a lot like the lettuce you eat in salads! It's found all over the world, growing along the coasts of our oceans. The most well-known kind is called Ulva lactuca. The word lactuca is Latin for "lettuce," which makes sense because of its leafy look. Some types of sea lettuce used to be called Enteromorpha, and these are also known as green nori.

What Does Sea Lettuce Look Like?

Sea lettuce can grow quite large, sometimes over 400 millimeters (about 16 inches) long, especially in calm waters. It's a bright to dark green plant that attaches itself to rocks or other surfaces using a small disc-like base. Its body is flat and thin, just like a leaf.

Eating Sea Lettuce: For Animals and People

Many sea creatures enjoy eating sea lettuce. This includes big animals like manatees and smaller ones like sea hares (which are a type of sea slug).

People in many parts of the world also eat sea lettuce! It's a popular food in places like Scandinavia, Great Britain, Ireland, China, and Japan. In Japan, it's called aosa. You can eat sea lettuce raw in salads or cooked in soups. It's really good for you because it has lots of protein, healthy dietary fiber, and many vitamins and minerals, especially iron.

However, it's important to know that sea lettuce can sometimes pick up harmful substances like toxic heavy metals from the water. So, it's not safe to eat if it's collected from polluted areas.

Sea Lettuce in Aquariums

Sea lettuce is often used in saltwater aquariums. People who keep reef aquariums like it because it helps clean the water by soaking up extra nutrients. It's also a great food source for fish that eat plants. Sea lettuce is easy to care for, as it can handle different amounts of light and temperatures. In an aquarium, you can attach it to rocks or just let it float around.

Important Health Information

In August 2009, a huge amount of sea lettuce washed up on beaches in Brittany, France. As it started to rot, it created a dangerous gas called hydrogen sulfide. This gas can be very harmful. There were reports of people and animals getting sick or even dying after breathing in these fumes.

Environmental groups believe that too much pollution, especially from pig and poultry farms, caused this huge growth of algae. The waste from these farms washed into the sea, acting like fertilizer for the sea lettuce, making it grow out of control. This event showed how important it is to protect our oceans from pollution.

Types of Sea Lettuce

There are many different kinds of sea lettuce! Here are some of the accepted species in the Ulva genus:

Accepted species

Names that are not clear

• Ulva costata
• Ulva repens
• Ulva tetragona

In 2014, a new type of Ulva was found in India and named Ulva paschima Bast. It looks very similar to Ulva intestinalis.

See also

In Spanish: Lechuga de mar para niños