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Japanese kelp grows in temperate cold water zones. Its developed holdfast firmly attaches to rock or other solid substrates in the sublittoral zone. Its deepest distribution is about 10 m, or more, depending on turbidity of seawater. In the Asian-Pacific region, the species is native to the northwest coasts of the Pacific ocean. It is found along the northern coastline of the Sea of Japan from northern Hokkaido Island and coastal regions near the Kinkazan Mountains of Honshu Island, across the Kuril Island chain to Yamchatka Peninsula in Russia, along the northern coastline of the Okhotsk Sea, south to Sakhalin Island and south-east as far as the Tartar Channel near Wonsan in the Korean Peninsula. Laminaria exhibits generation alternation, i.e. the sporophyte generation alternates with the gametophyte generation. The diploid (2n) sporophyte plant is a large multicellular macroalgae, whereas the haploid (1n) microscopic female and male gametophytes have one or a few cells. Thus, Laminaria exhibits heterothallism.
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