#learnin'

Acetabularia crenulata

Mermaid’s Wineglass

What’s really cool about these guys is that each little cap and stem is unicellular. So one shoot is ONE CELL. The nucleus sits in the rhizoid (the anchoring part of the organism) so that if the cell is decapitated, it can still function. 

In the 1930′s - 1950′s, Joachim Hämmerling experimented with various species of Acetabularia. He found that if he grafted a cap from A. crenulata onto the base of A. mediterranea, and vise versa, the cap would change to match that of the base it was grafted on to. In this way, Hämmerling is responsible for proving that the nucleus of the cell contains the genetic information necessary for cellular development.

Dumontia contorta

Seaweeds don’t have roots- they have what is called a “holdfast”, a term shared with coral, sponges and all sorts of crazy ocean flora. The holdfast varies in shape and size depending on the species and what it’s attached to. Unlike most roots on the surface, the holdfast doesn’t absorb nutrients and is simply used to hold the organism in place.