Like a long mound of orange spaghetti
Driving south along California’s scenic Highway 1 on November 3rd last year, we stopped at Carmel River State Beach, where I found this drying mound of seaweed that made me think of orange spaghetti. You’d have seen it that way too, wouldn’t you?
I take this to be a kelp, possibly Macrocystis pyrifera. Click the icon below to zoom in for some yummy details.
Portraits of Wildflowers 
yes, it does bring this to mind. nice shot –
ksbeth
January 23, 2017 at 5:17 AM
I have a lot more experience with spaghetti than with kelp.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2017 at 6:18 AM
That’s pasta alright!
Dina
January 23, 2017 at 5:51 AM
It looks like some olives got added. All that was lacking was tomato sauce.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2017 at 6:20 AM
… and maybe some garlic and perhaps parmesan? Give me a shout when it’s ready, I’ll bring the wine🍷🍷
Dina
January 23, 2017 at 7:41 AM
Sure. Bon appétit.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2017 at 7:42 AM
Following the food analogy, I wondered what might eat this lovely kelp. It seems that sea urchins favor it. In fact, they like it so much, they can strip kelp beds when their population grows too large. Nature being nature, balance gets restored when otters move in and eat the sea urchins.
But before that happens, the sea urchins roam the beds, eating to their hearts’ content. That raises another question: do you suppose there’s a Yelp for kelp?
shoreacres
January 23, 2017 at 7:49 AM
As likely a Yelp for kelp as a whelp of a sea otter. I see in the dictionary that in nautical usage a whelp can also be ‘any of the ridges on the barrel of a windlass or capstan.’ Has nautical you heard that usage?
Beyond the creatures that eat the kelp underwater, this washed-up portion on the beach had attracted lots of very tiny flies. I assume they were there to suck up nutrients from still-wet places, and possibly to lay eggs.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2017 at 8:10 AM
I have heard the word, although I think capstans with ridges are found mostly on older sailing vessels. I’m pretty sure Galveston’s Elissa has a traditional capstan. The winches and windlasses found on modern sailboats have smooth drums, and technology has changed the capstan ridges into a variety of forms, like this one. Combined with hydraulics and such, they make life a lot easier.
shoreacres
January 23, 2017 at 10:05 PM
I see what you mean. Capstans have come a long way since the type I remember from old illustrations:
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/20000/20058/capstan_20058.htm
Steve Schwartzman
January 24, 2017 at 6:11 AM
Looks a bit gross piled up like that, doesn’t it? I had a botany teacher who could identify seaweeds from the highway, at speed. We had the best field trips 🙂
melissabluefineart
January 23, 2017 at 9:38 AM
I considered it strictly visually, and therefore didn’t find it gross, even with lots of tiny flies drawn to it. I was like those flies, except my motivation was photographic.
Where was your botany teacher when I needed him? Actually I need him every time I’m out in nature.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2017 at 9:49 AM
Her. In fact, she was a frighteningly ultra-feminist who told a class of 200 freshman that in the foreseeable future we wouldn’t need men at all. It made quite an impression! Still, she was pretty good at ID.
melissabluefineart
January 25, 2017 at 9:58 AM
Too bad politics and ideology intrude into so many fields (and literally fields in your example).
Steve Schwartzman
January 25, 2017 at 3:21 PM
Ha, yeah. Like the Rump putting a gag order on the EPA. scary man.
melissabluefineart
January 26, 2017 at 8:21 AM
Not coincidentally also reminds me of various I-35 interchanges.
kathryningrid
January 23, 2017 at 1:23 PM
That’s funny—and so apt, especially in Dallas.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2017 at 2:23 PM
No kidding. I’d rather be entangled in heaping kelp than on a freeway needing help.
kathryningrid
January 23, 2017 at 3:42 PM
Myself, I’d be needing help kneading kelp. Maybe I can find guidance in the self-kelp section of my local bookstore.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2017 at 3:48 PM
Careful, we’re getting into some deep waters here!
kathryningrid
January 23, 2017 at 3:49 PM
But deep waters are profound. (Were they ever prolost?)
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2017 at 3:54 PM
Wouldn’t the opposite of profound be exlost?
kathryningrid
January 23, 2017 at 5:01 PM
Or antilost? Conlost? Amateurlost? Dilletantelost?
kathryningrid
January 23, 2017 at 5:02 PM
I’m afraid exlost sounds too much like Ex-Lax.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2017 at 5:15 PM
Nice
shivashishspeaks
January 25, 2017 at 7:38 AM
I’m glad it speaks to you.
Steve Schwartzman
January 25, 2017 at 7:41 AM
Orange spaghetti! Wonderful stuff for the veg garden 😃 I’m a seaweed fan ..
Julie@frogpondfarm
January 27, 2017 at 5:07 PM
Who wouldn’t be a seaweed fan in New Zealand?
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/like-something-by-salvador-dali/
Did you mean that seaweed can be used as fertilizer in a vegetable garden?
Steve Schwartzman
January 27, 2017 at 5:23 PM
I have made a brew by soaking it in water or I use it as a mulch!
Julie@frogpondfarm
January 27, 2017 at 7:48 PM
Ah, so each soaked furrow is a mulch gulch.
Steve Schwartzman
January 27, 2017 at 8:31 PM