Category: Plants, Algae, & Fungi

Intertidal Beauty in our own Backyard

Bridgette Clarkston

This photo shows a red seaweed, Opuntiella californica, so-named because it resembles a prickly pear cactus (genus Opuntia). This beauty was collected by Biology 320 students in Summer 2022 as part of a class project to document seaweed diversity at Stanley Park. The photo shows the specimen right before it was pressed and dried on herbarium paper. This is the first Opuntiella californica from Stanley Park to be added to the UBC Herbarium in 70 years, the first from the Lower Mainland in 40 years!