I got my copy of Jillian Freese’s A is for Algae earlier this week. Freese, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Rhode Island, says the book is “Part birthday gift. Part #scicomm. Part stress relief.” It’s full of watercolor paintings of algae, mostly seaweeds but with some phytoplankton as well. Each species (one for each letter of the alphabet) is presented with its scientific name, usually a common name, habitat and biogeographic information, and some interesting factoids.

Warning: spoilers below the fold.

Ever parochial, the first thing I wanted to know was:

It is!

— Jillian Freese (@jillianfreese) July 24, 2018

Sure enough! Volvox aureus, probably the most common species, and certainly one of the most widespread:

I don’t have kids, but I can easily imagine youngsters getting excited about this, especially if they can get to the ocean to see how many of the seaweeds in the book they can find.