Egregia menziesii - Feather boa

Family: Lessoniaceae [E-flora]

Habitat/Range

• Bathymetry: mostly subtidal to 20 meters (66 feet), but a few occur up to mid intertidal
• World Distribution: mostly subtidal to 20 meters (66 feet), but a few occur up to mid intertidal

Food Use

• Herring Egg Gathering: "Giant kelp and other types of kelp such as Laminaria and Egregia, eelgrass (Zostera marina) and seagrasses (Phyllospadix spp.), and bundles of western hemlock boughs (Tsuga heterophylla) or other conifer boughs anchored out in the water, are used to gather this precious food. Then the fronds or branches are hung up and dried and the eggs used all winter. The eggs on the seaweed are eaten together with the seaweed itself." [Nancy J. Turner]

Phytochemicals

Egregia Sp. - 18-20% algin by dry wt. ^{[Chapman SU]}

Pharmacology

"Several of the Phaeophyta investigated, notably Egregia Menziesii and Postelsia palmaeformis, showed slight activity against Staphylococcus aureus (Micrococcus pyogenes var. aureus), Bacillus megatherium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis H 37 Rv. The inhibition is not due to iodine but appears to be caused by organic compounds, the nature of which has not yet been determined." [Mautner]

Uses of Other Related Sp.

"In the mid-intertidal zone, early-successional algae competitively inhibit a mid-successional association of red algae, which in turn competitively inhibit the late-successional Gigartina association (Sousa 1979). In its turn, the Gigartina turf outcompetes the kelp Egregia laevigata, which recruits only from spores and only at certain times of the year." ^{[Lobban SEP]}

Synonyms: Fucus menziesii [NPS-E-flora]

References

• E-flora - Egregia menziesii, http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Egregia%20menziesii, Accessed December 23, 2019
  • North Pacific Seaweed
• Mautner - The chemistry of brown algae, Henry G. Mautner, Economic Botany
• Nancy J. Turner - Coastal Peoples and Marine Plants on The Northwest Coast, Nancy J. Turner
• Saklani et al., 2011 - Saklani, A., M. R. Sahoo, and S. K. Kutty. "The genus Fritillaria (Liliaceae): A review of its phytochemical and pharmacological perspectives." Int. J. Res. Phytochem. Pharmacol 1.3 (2011): 96-111.