Plants of the Sea

Year Published: 1980

Complete Record: Many kinds of plants live in the sea. There are small one-celled plants, and plants that grow to very large sizes and grow in groups like underwater forests. But these large marine plants are different from land plants--they have no root systems. Each plant is anchored to the earth’s floor or to a rocky spot by a “holdfast” that only holds the plant in place. Marine plants are important to people. They provide food and shelter to many kinds of fish. They are harvested to produce food and food ingredients. And they are important in the earth’s energy cycles. Much of the energy we trap from the sun is converted to forms useful to people by the algae of the sea.