Sargassum nutans
Sargassum: Not Just for Breakfast Any More
Sargassum — Gulf weed — comprises a huge number of seaweeds in all oceans, both bottom dwelling and free floating. In fact, two common species found in Florida waters, S. natans and S. fluitans, are free floating all their lives.
Sargassum fluitans
This brown seaweed, which is also a vast floating masses in the Sargasso Sea in the north central Atlantic, is found washed ashore on the beaches often following sustained easterly winds such as during northeasters and hurricanes. It’s not only common in Florida but I also picked it up as a boy along the shores of New England. Although considered a smelly nuisance by beach-goers when it starts to decompose, the floating mats are a source of food or home to a huge variety of sea life. Often some of them will still be living on a clump of beached sargassum.
Species of Sargassum (sah-GAS-um) can be very difficult to identify because there’s a lot variability. But they do have some basic characteristics. Of all the seaweeds, Sargassum is the genus that looks the most like land plants. It has an axis (stem) with distinct foliar blades (leaves.) These “leaves” are long, oval-shaped, and may have smooth or toothed edges. In addition, Sargassum has small berry-like air bladders all over it. A member of the brown seaweed clan, its color doesn’t change much either, varying from yellow-brown to deep chocolate color. Avoid any seaweed. Sargassum or otherwise, with blue-green algae on it.
As one might expect Sargassum species vary in taste and texture so there is no one way to cook your local species. It takes experimentation. More so, among seaweeds Sargassum is not a prime edible but a plentiful one. Slightly bitter, one might call it an acquired taste, then again all tastes are acquired except that for sugar. As Asian countries have the most experience with eating seaweed, most of the approaches have an Oriental spin.
Some Sargassums are consumed fresh, others cooked in coconut milk or a little vinegar or lemon juice. It is smoked-dried to preserve it. Sargassum is also eaten by itself or added to fish and meat dishes. If not strong it can be added to salads after washing, or it can be cooked in water like a vegetable. If the Sargassum is strong flavored it can be boiled in two changes of water. Some recipes then call for it to be mixed with brown sugar and used as a filling in steamed buns but it could be eaten as is.
A second way of cooking Sargassum, such as S. fusiformis, is fry it quickly then simmer it in water with soy sauce and other ingredients for 30 minutes to two hours or more, depending upon the dish. Other areas of the world mix their Sargassum with oil, salt and green onions and using as filling in dumplings. It is also often cooked with tofu. One Fuji dish is to cook it with a fish then let it cool. When it sets it is sliced and eaten as a cold dish.
Indonesians like to drop Sargassum into boiling water and cook it for one minute then eat it with a sauce made with allspice. Or, they eat it with sugar or make it into a relish. Another option is to steam the seaweed. It can also be cooked into a jelly, firmed, and or used as a glue. Larger “leaves” make a chip when deep fried or the entire plant can be coated with a tempura batter, deep fried and served with a dipping sauce
Hawaiians had a variety of Sargassums to cook with. They stuffed fish with the leaves, or ate it raw with raw fish or octopus. The leaves can be added to soups and chowders or deep fried in tempura batter. Sun dried leaves can be eaten like chips, or they can be fried and sprinkled with salt.
Species found in Florida include: S. natans, S. fluitans, S. filipendula and S. pteropleuron. Those eaten elsewhere in the world include: S. aquifolium, S. fusiformis, S. granuliferum, S. mutica, S. polycyctum, and S. siliquosum. It can be cooked in coconut milk, or a little vinegar, or smoke dried.
As for the botanical name, the bladders look like grapes and were named Sargassum from the Portuguese word for grapes. Nutans (NEW-tanz) means nodding, and fluitans (FLOO-ih-tanz )from the Greek word fluito, floating. I suspect that is where the word “fluid” came from in English.
Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile
IDENTIFICATION: Locally, S. nutans long narrow leaves and pointed air bladders, S. fluitans broad leaves and air bladders without pointed tips. In the northeast U.S. any bottom attached Sargassum will be the S. filipendula.
TIME OF YEAR: All year, but is more plentiful in warm weather. In Florida winds and currents typically wash Sargassum to shore beginning in May. On the west coast of the U.S., spring to autumn.
ENVIRONMENT: S. nutans and S. fluitans are free floating. Other Sargassum are found just below the low water mark down to around 100 feet.
METHOD OF PREPARATION: Take younger leaves. Fried, boiled, steamed, dried.
HERB BLURB
Sargassums contain antibacterial fatty acids, has anti-oxidants and is mildly diuretic. Fresh Sargassum can be made into a poultice for cuts. In Chinese medicine Sargassum is dried, powered, and used to make a tea to control phlegm. Avoid Sargassum if you are iodine sensitive.
Hi all,
great article!
We are on Cayman Brac and have a lot of Sargassum coming ashore following recent storms. I have been using it on some plants in our garden after rinsing it of salt. So far so good – there are a lot of nutrients in seaweed that are perfect for the garden.
We have samphire – sea asparagus – in England and it is delicious!
As for the Sargassum – the next step is the taste test – I will let you know how it goes!
wow1! beautiful article
good to know that sargassum is also a medicine.
and now I already know what to put in my plants that will grow beautiful
thanks in such information!
Great! I like this article. Sargassum started visiting my country Nigeria once a year since 2008. It is being considered as nuisance to the offshore fishermen. A research team is coming to the limelight to find uses for the sargassum that often returning to the nature without tapping in this part of the world.
I wonder how long it would take to over boil the Florida Seaweed to the
point that the Good micro nutrients would be ruined ?
Is boiling over 1 Hour bad for the good nutrients in seaweed ?
What would happen if the seaweed was rinsed 3 times, raw, and soaked in
fresh water over night in the fridge. Then blended raw , with some type of
favorite drink liquid like orange juice or grape juice .
I do this with raw Kale, and it tastes great
Any answers would be appretiated , thanks .
Seaweed has a texture issue as well as taste… boiling can moderate that a little. It can be eaten raw but it does remind one why cooking was invented.
going to florida in april. kinda scared and excited to see and eat? seaweed. I am an aspiring herbalist with way too much curiosity for my own good. are there any bad seaweeds that i should steer away from?
There are a couple. I have an article on them.
and forgot to add the next question. can i dry it for transport home/ oven baking? hang to dry over campfire? wash it first! lay it out and oven on warmish?
Yes, you can dry seaweed though it tends to continue to smell.
I tried some Sargassum while visiting a Florida panhandle beach. Fresh from the water, it tasted like salty vegetables. There wasn’t much flavor to it, much like the iceberg lettuce of the gulf. I gathered more for later experimentation.
After about 24 hours, mostly under refrigeration, the bright green color had mostly faded to brown. First, I tried steaming it. That stunk up the kitchen and forced the opening of windows. I ate some as a salad with olive oil and vinegar. It was very filling, but again not very flavorful. The stems were a bit woody.
Because of that, I boiled the rest, hoping to soften it up. It didn’t work very well, but the liquid turned a rich brown and might make a decent herbal tea with the right complementary flavors.
The best parts seem to be the float bladders and leaflike structures, so stripping those off like you would with rosemary would be a good option. Otherwise, chopping the stems into segments about 1 cm long would be advisable. If you cook it, do it outside or under an exhaust fan.
I think it would probably make a good filler seaweed in a wakame salad.
thank you for information i love what you said here about how to make tea out of sargassum..:)
how can i make a glue out of the sargassum??
Out of curiousity, have been able to make the glue using sargassum? I would be interested in finding out how to get it done please.
Hello guys,
I am from Indonesia. We have a very large quantity of Sargassum with variety of shape. We are a maritime country. If you interest to buy in a big quantity, please feel free to contact me at:
http://itrade.adventourland.com
sandilla@adventourland.com
or direct phone/ whatsapp: +6281286128677
Skype: Sandilla.Tristiany
Your link did not work as submitted so I abbreviated it.
Green Deane – love your site and your youtube videos. Hoping to make one of your walks in the next month or so. Here outside of Jax FL we’ve had tons of sargassum wash up this past week, so tonight I stuffed a little in my kayak and brought it back home. Tried a bite raw – actually enjoyed the taste and texture. Pan fried a little bit – not good. Boiled the rest with a little soy sauce and I could see eating this on a regular basis (if I can find a way to manage the odor from cooking). The leftover broth was also quite flavorful – different but similar to the coquina soup I tried a few days ago (thank you for that one too). I did have a question for you though – you refer to eating the ‘leaves’. In researching prior to eating, I saw one but only person specifically refer to not eating the air sacs. I only tried a few bites tonight as it was the first time, but I did sample a few of the air sacs and found those to be the tastiest part. So far I’m fine 🙂 and my guess is this one person is mistaken but I was hoping you could elaborate on what you refer to as the ‘leaves’. Thank you – hope to meet you in person soon.
It’s all edible, leaves, air sacks et cetera… I, too, had some dried this week.
Hi, thank you for such great information. I live with my employers on a private beach in south FL, where we have piles of sargassum drying on the shore. We are mostly interested in nutritional benefits, so I was wondering if it makes much difference nutritionally if one gathers it from the ocean, vs. already dried on the beach, which seems more convenient. Thoughts? Thanks again, very helpful.
Drying is often like cooking, some nutriments are made more available and others removed or destroyed. Drying can also concentrate effects and change flavor.
Go to Galveston, Texas. It is several feet deep on the beaches.
Hi. I was wondering do you have research studies which proves that sargassum siliquosum is safe for human consumption and have no harmful chemicals or enzymes toward the body?
i am making a research on food fortification using dried sargassum 🙂
No, and I didn’t see any of that nature.
I presently live in Sierra Leone, West Africa, where massive beach casts of sargassum have been noticed since 2011.
I’ll be glad to start direct communication with anyone in order to share ideas, especially regarding the uses and benefits of S. fluitans and S. natans from first hand experiences.
Email: patshowers@gmail.com
Mobile: 0023288064445
Skype ID: percyats
We had lots of Sargussum (I think that is what it is) on St. John, USVI today and I was wondering if it is edible? Anyone ever tried or knows this species in the Virgin Islands?
http://www.stjohn-guide.com/stjohn-usvi-activities/st-john-sargassum-edible/
Can anyone tell me where does it create?
I’ve been watching this drifting to our Island from a child and now i’m wondering where it comes from… thank you…
In the area called the Sargassum Sea…
Please come down and take as much as you want for Free…alert the Chinese! Come and get it…before it decomposes! The eastern Caribbean is loaded with it since July…we have no place to put it anymore….we are overwhelmed!
A great article!
I live in Barbados and we have had a lot of sargassum arrive on our shores in the last two to three years. It is seen as a pest as it is covering some of our popular tourist beaches! A lot has been taken away by the excavator load and is being used for fertilizer. But it keeps on arriving in huge masses. My family and I are curious about the gastronomic aspects of it. We grow a lot of our own veggies! I can see experiments happening in our kitchen this Easter weekend!! Thanks for the ideas….
Hi, I have been using Sargassum weed in abundance from the south coast of Barbados in my vegetable patch for more than 5 yrs. and the results have been a bountiful harvest of the many vegetables I plant, for my family & friends. In some agricultural circles here, it is belived not to be of any great significance for the garden. I have tasted fresh Sargassum weed and although it is a bit bitter it is still palitable.
Hello Mr. Landsands;
I have heard many methods of processing the sargassum in order to render it suitable for gardens.
As you seem to have had success could you share your method
Thank you.
hi,
I live in Progreso, Yucatan Mexico in the beach. I use anything and everything that I find around me. I was told to only grow cacti by the ocean. I have instead experimented with melons and cucumbers to start with. I plant in the sand with a mixture of enriched soil and sargassum them use sargassum as mulch against the hot sun. All flowers, vegetables, cinnamon, fruit trees, vanilla are doing great. we ate our first melon yesterday. not only was it sweet. it was the best darn melon I ever had.
Nice topic!!! few more facts about seaweed http://verdure.me/seaweeds-must-try-nutritious-weeds/
Hello
we are looking for a US east coast, or gulf coast supplier of powdered sargassum. does anyone have any idea of any US east coast seaweed supplier?
Sincerely, james
Does it have to Us Coast…how about mexico
I’ve been researching the sargassum because we have a ton of it on our beaches and I’ve found a bunch of studies that say it can be toxic if consumed. It might not be obvious immediately but it causes a build up of arsenic in the blood stream and as the physical seaweed starts drying up it begins to emit a poisonous gas that can irritate human membranes.
It depends on how much you eat…
I just read an article on its arsenic toxicity and when consumed as part of a meal, it is found in the urine at the same levels of someone with arsenic poisoning. So altho there’s a ton on my local beach, i wont use it and i am also a bit leary about using as fertilizer now. Kelp is much safer, sadly rarer tho.
I read your article on the sargassum seaweed with deep interest because these have filled our Eastern Coastline of our twin island State of Trinidad&Tobago to the point where there is no beach for beach goers and the fisherfolks cannot do their fishing.Thank you a whole lot for the info as well as for its usages….will take up a few bags full to fertilize the soil for my flower garden.Do not think I can eat any of this unless ways are provided to first prepare the weed followed by the recipe.Again thank you a whole bunch.
It sounds to me like there is some massive change in ocean currents going on. Many places where sargassum used to be rare are now inundated with it. Here in Belize it covers the beaches and the stink drives tourists away. Fishermen cannot use nets or troll. Does anyone know of research on this?
Can Sargassum be used in building construction in any way
Perhaps it could be used in foamed concrete as a strengthening fiber, similar to hemp. It would be necessary to thoroughly rinse out all the salt.
Invasive seaweed can create a biodegradable plastic
The first synthetic plastic was created in 1907 based on a synthetic polymer made from phenol and formaldehyde—mostly derived from petrochemicals, and transformed our everyday lives. Its applications have yet to reach a limit. From polyester fibers and textiles to food packaging; high impact polystyrene; polyimide for high temperature plastics, low friction coating and heat resistant polytetrafuerosthylene (Teflon). Who would have imagined a 3D printer a few years ago, being able to fabricate plastic goods.
Now imagine a plastic made from seaweed.
I live in the island of the Dominican Republic where an invasive seaweed called sargassum is clogging our beaches. Observing firsthand the invasion of sargassum on my favorite beach in the village of Juan Dolio, I became interested in this phenomenon. The local government alarmed by the potential effect on its essential tourism industry decided to use the local population to gather the seaweed and burry it in the sand. Obviously not a good solution given the huge amounts of sargassum visible on its way to the shoreline.
To my amazement, looking into this problem on the web, I saw an article by a Canadian research team, studying NASA satellite images who observed that this sargassum does not come from the “sargassum sea” in the Atlantic, as previously believed, but rather from the Brazilian coast, it’s growth due in part from chemical fertilizers used along the Amazon river. Not necessary to speak of the dangers and problems attributed with this.
Sargassum may be seen as a plague by the tourism industry, but it could soon become a source of revenue and a surprising solution, using the sargassum as a cheaper natural organic fertilizer. However, my total amazement, I also found a possible application for this seaweed: the manufacture of a bio-degradable plastic.
A company called Algopack is now processing brown seaweed to make plastic pellets used in the fabrication of bio-degradable plastic items in its factory located in North Western France. Another French company called Europlastiques is now successfully using these pellets and as you can imagine, finding dozens of applications. The great thing is that these fabricated items can easily be dissolved in water in a few hours and transform themselves back into a fertilizer.
Sargassum is becoming a major issue in the Gulf coast and the Caribbean. I would imagine that local governments may be interested in contacting the owner of Algopack about whether such factory set up alongside beach areas may be a viable option.
Saving the Tourism industry while developing a new industry ought to be an interesting project for the World Bank.
i may be interested in buying sargassum email me asap
Do you still want to buy Sargassum?
What’s your email address? Mine is monz1hk@gmail.com
We have been conducting studies of Sargassum movement — our Web site might be of interest
Jelly? I have been looking into how to make Agar from seaweed and specifically Sargassum since that is the most abundant seaweed in Florida. I have not found much info. If anyone makes smoothies with it fresh i would love to know. Im going to try a little when i have time to go to the beach in Fort Lauderdle. Dean, i have introduced your site to many people since i was introduced to it about 3 years ago. I Can’t wait to take one of your classes when i move to my 2 acre Permaculture farm in to be in February 2017 in Palatka, Florida.
Hi there Deane,
I am sailing around in the Caribbean, always looking for ways to eat well where there are not so many vegetables and to reduce my waste, so I’m trying to learn edible leaves and wild veggies of the Caribbean. Just collected some sargassum from the sea today, but some has a blackish growth on the stems…is this the blue green algae? So, first question, what does th toxic algae look like, and second question, any idea how much would be too much to eat, as I could see myself going wild knowing it’s a free, abundant vegetable. Thank you:)
Michelle
Sargassum should not have blackish growth on it, if you are going to eat it. And the blue-green algae is the toxic algae.
Sargassum is super-abundant all along the Gulf of Mexico coast, from Florida to south Texas and beyond.
I’m interested in growing sargassum for eating but can’t find any to start the process.
I’m from the island of San Andres, Colombia and we get a lot of sargassum. I’m thinking to pickle it, then dehydrate it and then either keep it crunchy and sweet and tart or make a powder to crust fish or to add to ceviche.
I’ll let you know how it turns
Dear Mr. Deane,
My name is Vincent Encomio. I received a link to your blog from a local Master Gardener here in Stuart, FL. I am a UF IFAS and FL Sea Grant extension agent for Martin and St. Lucie counties in Florida currently doing work related to Sargassum, as it’s an emerging problem on the Treasure Coast (Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River counties), especially at one beach in Fort Pierce. It’s already a well established problem further south and especially in the Caribbean. I have been working with a team looking at Sargassum composting, a project we just completed. I don’t know if you have learned this recently, but Sargassum spp. are well known to bio-accumulate arsenic from the environment and levels can be quite high, much higher than what would be safe to consume. We actually measured arsenic content in Sargassum compost because we were (still are) concerned about its use for growing food. Although arsenic did decrease over time, there were still amounts present. There was also a recently completed study in the Caribbean, where they saw arsenic accumulate in vegetables grown with Sargassum-amended soil. This is quite concerning so I have been recommending that people do not use Sargassum compost to grow food, let alone eat it directly. It is likely fine for landscape plants, but there are questions on how pollinators could be affected if Sargassum was used to grow flowers – still unanswered. I would love to share our findings with you and talk about other work I am doing with Sargassum. But I just wanted to make sure you and your readers are aware of the danger of eating Sargassum directly due to the high arsenic contents that those spp. are known to accumulate. I’d love to talk to you more about all this. You have my email address, but I will leave it in the body of this message as well for the benefit of your readers. It is vencomio@ufl.edu. Again, please contact me.
Thanks,
Vincent
Hello again Mr. Deane,
Here is some other research from UM regarding another concern over consuming Sargassum: https://news.miami.edu/stories/2019/08/studying-the-surging-seaweed-that-is-sargassum.html
In short, elevated levels of enterococci bacteria have been linked to excessive amounts of Sargassum on beaches. Enterococcus is a bacterial indicator of fecal contamination sampled regularly by the FL Dept. of Health.
Vincent