That's how that plant is spelt. Holdfast, stipe and blade
That's how that plant is made.
It does so much for us
When it makes that ocean forest.
-words by Steve Engel.
The slime-bone or kelp-bone, a carefully crafted and unusual musical instrument, debuted today on the western edge of the Clatsop peninsula. Constructed of the finest of fresh bull kelp pneumatocysts and stipes, each horn had its own unique sound. Testing each stranded macro-brown algae for firmness, our trio selected the freshest available and deftly sliced off the long trailing fronds. With precision they surgically incised the bulbous pneumatocyst and removed the uppermost portion of the sphere. The stipe was then shortened for ease of handling and clarity of tone. And then the show began! A celebration to honor the bones of the Peter Iredale, stranded here in 1906, and to express joy at the completion of our journey down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.
