{"id":31,"date":"2005-02-28T16:45:45","date_gmt":"2005-03-01T00:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/portfolio\/kelp-fronds-and-pneumatocysts\/"},"modified":"2021-07-15T08:07:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T00:07:35","slug":"kelp-fronds-and-pneumatocysts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/kelp-fronds-and-pneumatocysts.html","title":{"rendered":"Kelp Fronds and Pneumatocysts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Giant kelp (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?sp=Macrocystis_pyrifera\"><em>Macrocystis pyrifera<\/em><\/a>) is the fastest growing plant in the world. It clings to the ocean floor and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=2120\">grows upward toward the surface<\/a>, buoyed up by gas-filled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=02126\">pneumatocysts<\/a>. Growth occurs at the tips of the plant &#8212; the fronds &#8212; which resemble leaves of a terrestrial plant.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Kelp frond showing pneumatocysts (air bladders).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=03406\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Kelp frond showing pneumatocysts (air bladders), Macrocystis pyrifera, San Clemente Island\" src=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/stock-photo\/macrocystis-pyrifera-california-underwater-image-03406-482381.jpg\" alt=\"Kelp frond showing pneumatocysts (air bladders), Macrocystis pyrifera, San Clemente Island\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Kelp frond showing pneumatocysts (air bladders).<br \/>\nImage ID: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=03406\">03406<\/a><br \/>\nSpecies: <a title=\"Giant kelp photos\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/giant_kelp_photo.html\">Giant kelp<\/a>, <a title=\"Macrocystis pyrifera photos\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?sp=Macrocystis_pyrifera\"><i>Macrocystis pyrifera<\/i><\/a><br \/>\nLocation: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?location=san_clemente_island&amp;state=california&amp;country=usa\">San Clemente Island<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?state=california&amp;country=usa\">California<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?country=usa\">USA<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?x0=locations&amp;x1=usa&amp;x2=california&amp;x3=san_clemente_island\">San Clemente Island<\/a> is the finest place in the world to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=01107\">swim<\/a> in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=2121\">kelp forest<\/a>. (Kelp is found at many other places in similar temperate waters, but San Clemente&#8217;s clean blue water and relatively warm temperatures make it ideal among such places.) Similar to the towering <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=09080\">redwood stands of the Pacific Northwest<\/a>, forests of giant kelp soar above the ocean floor, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=00602\">swaying to and fro with passing ocean waves<\/a>. These forests are home to fishes, rays, sharks and myriad invertebrates that grow on the kelp itself or the neighboring rocky reefs. When a kelp plant is tall enough to reach the ocean surface, it continues growing and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=06107\">spreads out in a huge flat mat<\/a>, blocking the sun.<\/p>\n<p>San Clemente Island, California.<\/p>\n<p>Keywords: kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, giant kelp, kelp forest, underwater photo, pneumatocyst, frond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is the fastest growing plant in the world. It clings to the ocean floor and grows upward toward the surface, buoyed up by gas-filled pneumatocysts. Growth occurs at the tips of the plant &#8212; the fronds &#8212; which resemble leaves of a terrestrial plant. Kelp frond&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,400,122],"tags":[221,248,330],"class_list":{"0":"post-31","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"category-san-clemente-island","9":"category-underwater-life","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-giant-kelp","12":"tag-underwater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}