Nereocystis luetkeana is an annual kelp which is common from north of Carmel, California, to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Occasionally, the kelp lasts longer than one season.
This kelp has a holdfast of about 40 cm, with a single stipe of up to 36 m. It contains a single pneumatocyst at the end of the stipe, with multiple (30-64) blades attached to the pneumatocyst. The blades are up to 4 m long, and 15 cm broad.
This species forms thick beds on rocks and are an important part of kelp forests.
Nereocystisluetkeana often dominates northeastern Pacific kelp forests.
The very upper story Nereocystis is an annual plant, however, and it and other species are slowly displaced by Laminaria groenlandica, which shades and inhibits the growth of newly arrived spores.
Unlike Nereocystisluetkeana, Macrocystis pyrifera is not an annual.
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