Why do seaweeds have such weird shapes?
Algae are very different from normal land plants. Although both have chlorophyll, algae don’t have true roots, stems and leaves. Algae don’t have a system of channels to move water around their body, called a vascular system, that ‘normal’ plants do. So they can only grow in water or moist places. Freed from the ‘rules’ of living on land, seaweeds can take all kinds of shapes from filaments to sheets, encrusting layers to branching forms.
