The most common "seaweed" in the New England rocky intertidal zone, Fucus is a brown algae (Phaeophyta), and is easily recognized by the presence of floats within the "leafy" part, called the blade. They attach at the base to rocks, but also to pilings and other non-moving objects. Often they have a large variety of other species living on them. They are especially important to intertidal ecology because the underside of a large mat of Fucus remains cool and moist even when they top layer is exposed to sun at low tide, allowing species to live protected at low tide.

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