account arrow-down-select arrow-down arrow-left arrow-right arrow-small bluesky book calendar close email eventbriteexternalfacebook instagram linkedin locationphone pinterest plus quote search tiktok time twitter video-icon

Sea Lettuce

(Ulva lactuca)

Sea Lettuce is unmistakeable – most often a bright green and always translucent, it is found on all UK coasts.

©Dorset Wildlife Trust
Sea lettuce

Take action

Become a member

Memberships builds our community and gives us a predictable income, which lets us plan and sustain longer projects that can have a greater impact. The more members we have, the more we can do to protect the Sussex countryside and coast.

Make a donation

Membership builds our community and gives us a predictable income, which lets us plan and sustain longer projects that can have a greater impact. The more members we have, the more we can do to protect the Sussex countryside and coast.

Overview

Sea Lettuce is a common seaweed, found attached to rocks and other surfaces using a small holdfast or living in rockpools if it has become detatched. The detatched fronds continue to grow and can create large floating colonies. The ruffled fronds are unique – bright green and translucent, being only two cells thick. It is this ruffling that gives it the name Sea Lettuce – as it looks a bit like a lettuce leaf!

Key Facts

  • Sea Lettuce lives up to its name: it looks like green, floppy lettuce leaves which are often tatty in appearance but are quite tough.
  • Sea Lettuce is sometimes eaten as ‘Green laver’ but ‘Purple laver’ (Porphyra umbilicalis) is much preferred. Both are used to make laver bread – a Welsh speciality – and are also used to complement rice in Japanese and Korean cooking.
  • Length: up to 20cm Frond width: up to 30cm

Status

Common

Seasonality

All year round

Discover species that call Sussex home

More than 10,000 species of plants, animals, birds, insects and invertebrates call our nature reserves home. From bats to beetles, orchids to oaks, and butterflies to birds of prey, there’s an impressive diversity of life to discover and experience across the habitats of Sussex.

Join the Sussex Wildlife Trust community

Become a member today to protect nature for tomorrow

As a member, you get access to free guided nature walks, magazines about local wildlife, discounts on courses and events, and a guide to our reserves.

Not quite ready to join but want to help?

Donate to help create a wilder future for nature in Sussex

Choose to give money to a specific cause, or to our work to manage local reserves, defend nature, and create wonderfully wild spaces on land and beneath the waves.