Fragments of lace

Occasionally, bits of red lace turn up on the beach, torn from the parent plant. I floated one in a shallow bowl.

Sea braid, aka sea comb, Plocamium pacificum. About 4 cm. The whole plant may be up to 25 cm. long.

Zooming in. The tiny branchlets each have three tinier branchlets off to one side.

And looking at those tiniest branches under the microscope, at 40x, I can see that they also wear mini-branchlets.

This seaweed grows on rocks in the lower intertidal zone, which is why, when I find it close to the shore, it is always a fragment.