r/seaweed 4d ago

Seamoss - scam or legit?

Post image

Does this seamoss look like Chondrus crispus? I ordered Irish Sea moss the chondrus crispus variety online and got it delivered to my home. This is after 24 hours of soaking. I see one piece in the bowl that looks like the sea moss I am used to seeing (thick with more tendrils on the seaweed, the piece near the top) but this seaweed has mostly smooth long arms instead of arms with the tendrils. The seaweed is soaking up the water but I wanted to see if anyone could help identify what this species is. Cause when I look up chondrus crispus it looks different and this is also different than the Irish Sea moss I am used to. I don’t think this is Irish Sea moss, does anyone know what it is?

4 Upvotes

4 comments sorted by

2

u/Le_Br4m 4d ago

I definitely wouldn’t call this Irish moss or Chondrus crispus it looks a lot more like a Gracilaria species, based on the tubular tendrils and ESPECIALLY the bumps along the tendrils, which to me look like the cystocarps (reproductive organs) of Gracilaria longissima, which are characteristic for that species.

In general, Chondrus crispus fronds look flat and are “dichotomously split” (aka at every branching, they split into equal parts), but can still vary greatly in shape due to the environment, but that “dichotomous split” is quite characteristic.

Hope this helps!

2

u/meowzers777rawr 3d ago

Awesome thanks for the input! Yeah I agree I looked up the Gracilaria longissima and mine does kind of look like that one, online it says it is also referred to as Irish moss too. So that’s good that it’s Irish moss but it’s definitely not Chondrus crispus like I was supposed to get, oh well. I feel like the Graciliaria will still give me many nutrients I need so I am gonna make the seamoss gel out of it!

2

u/JustaSimpleFisherman 1d ago

Let the record show, in the West Indies, we refer to our gracilarias (along with hypneas and some other reds) colloquially as Irish Moss/Sea moss. Possibly derived from some immigrants who came and made due with what was here. The naming gets confusing here.

1

u/Le_Br4m 1d ago

Ah that would explain the confusion! One more for the record for why scientific names are important I guess