"Bladderwrack is a brown seaweed in the genus Fucus that grows in the intertidal regions of temperate areas," says Loretta Roberson, an associate scientist at the University of Chicago's Marine Biological Laboratory. "You can find it here in the United States and in Europe-Ireland to England-and most places on that same latitude." The name comes from the air-filled sacs, or "bladders," on the seaweed's thallus. These teeny bladders help the plant float and stay closer to sunlight for photosynthesis.
"There was actually a large seaweed industry [in North America] where people would collect big wagonfuls of seaweed, and they would use it for a bunch of different purposes," Roberson says. Indigenous peoples used it for poultices and teas, and by the early 1800s, it gained a reputation as a remedy for goiter-a swelling caused by thyroid issues.
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