dulse - sea leaf

Was walking along Murlough Bay today and saw this beautiful mound of dulse resplendent in the sun. Edible seaweed has long been with us.

In 600 BC, a Chinese author named Sze Teu wrote a book describing how seaweed was prepared as special gifts for kings. During the Greek and Roman empire – seaweeds growing in the Mediterranean Sea were routinely used as medicine. In fact, as early as 100 BC, records indicate that ancient Greeks used a species of red algae to treat infections from parasitic worms.
Records from 500 AD indicate Christian monks in Ireland and Scotland were regularly eating and enjoying dulse. 1,400 years ago, monks following St. Columba harvested this nutritious red algae from the rocky shoreline of the British Isles.
Its only recently we have learned it is a superfood!
So as well as being beautiful - it has a practical use.  For me, today, it was its beauty struck me and made me stop in wonder at creation!

Interestingly, the name dulse is derived from the old Gaelic word dillisk which probably means sea leaf!.