@RBCM Observer Comments: Birchwood Drive, Trail BC which hopefully can help you zero in on location. My home is about 11 kms above the border by road. A steep slope of gravelly soil, partially disturbed by construction, is right behind my yard. The vegetation on the slope includes stands of birch and ponderosa pine trees, oregon grape, ferns (in such a hot area?!) and assorted shrubs and plants you would expect in the hot, dry conditions we normally get, never mind the Arizona conditions we're getting this summer!! The slope is capped by a relatively flat ridge top with boulder fields below.

This observation is part of a long-term project examining plankton biodiversity in the nearshore waters around the Hakai Institute's Quadra Island ecological observatory. A COI DNA sequence from the organism has been deposited in the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD). Photo license and credit belong to the Hakai Institute.

Lots of juvenile Saccharina latissima at Stanley Park right now in the mid-intertidal. Found alongside lots of the “false Kelp”, Petalonia fascia. Made a quick set of annotated photos to help distinguish these co-occurring species, and two iNat records to note both species. Later in summer, Saccharina population will be restricted to lower intertidal and Petalonia blades will be mostly gone (alternate life cycle stage, a crust, still present).

Note: last photo refers to both species as “juveniles”. Only the Saccharina are juveniles and will grow much larger. The Petalonia are already full grown and very large compared to a “typical” Petalonia in BC.