Kelp fronds showing pneumatocysts, bouyant gas-filled bubble-like structures which float the kelp plant off the ocean bottom toward the surface, where it will spread to form a roof-like canopy.
Location: Santa Barbara Island, California
Image ID: 35827
Sunlight glows throughout a giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 37086
Kelp fronds and pneumatocysts. Pneumatocysts, gas-filled bladders, float the kelp plant off the ocean bottom toward the surface and sunlight, where the leaf-like blades and stipes of the kelp plant grow fastest. Giant kelp can grow up to 2' in a single day given optimal conditions. Epic submarine forests of kelp grow throughout California's Southern Channel Islands.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 37100
Kelp fronds and pneumatocysts. Pneumatocysts, gas-filled bladders, float the kelp off the ocean bottom toward the surface and sunlight, where the leaf-like blades and stipes of the kelp plant grow fastest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 37297
Giant kelp frond showing pneumatocysts. Small gas bladders -- pneumatocysts -- connect the kelp's stipes ("stems") to its blades ("leaves"). These bladders help elevate the kelp plant from the bottom, towards sunlight and the water's surface.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33439
Giant kelp frond showing pneumatocysts. Small gas bladders -- pneumatocysts -- connect the kelp's stipes ("stems") to its blades ("leaves"). These bladders help elevate the kelp plant from the bottom, towards sunlight and the water's surface.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33440
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33441
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33442
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33443
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33444
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33445
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33446
Kelp holdfast attaches the plant to the rocky reef on the oceans bottom. Kelp blades are visible above the holdfast, swaying in the current.
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 34212
Parry's Nolina, or Giant Nolina, a flowering plant native to southern California and Arizona founds in deserts and mountains to 6200'. It can reach 6' in height with its flowering inflorescence reaching 12'.
Species: Parry's nolina, Nolina parryi
Location: Joshua Tree National Park, California
Image ID: 26725
Sunset on the Eureka Dunes. The Eureka Valley Sand Dunes are California's tallest sand dunes, and one of the tallest in the United States. Rising 680' above the floor of the Eureka Valley, the Eureka sand dunes are home to several endangered species, as well as "singing sand" that makes strange sounds when it shifts. Located in the remote northern portion of Death Valley National Park, the Eureka Dunes see very few visitors.
Location: Eureka Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California
Image ID: 25240
Eureka Dunes. The Eureka Valley Sand Dunes are California's tallest sand dunes, and one of the tallest in the United States. Rising 680' above the floor of the Eureka Valley, the Eureka sand dunes are home to several endangered species, as well as "singing sand" that makes strange sounds when it shifts. Located in the remote northern portion of Death Valley National Park, the Eureka Dunes see very few visitors.
Location: Eureka Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California
Image ID: 25241