grown since you arrived: 0.000 mm

KELP

Giant kelp is one of the fastest-growing living things on Earth: up to about 60 cm in a single day. Scroll down and watch the forest grow.

move through the kelp · click to make bubbles

It starts tiny

Smaller than a grain of dust.

Giant kelp begins as a microscopic spore drifting in cold, clear water, looking for a rock to land on.

The holdfast

It grabs the rock and holds on.

A tangle called the holdfast grips the seafloor. It looks like roots, but it doesn't feed the kelp. It just holds on through storms.

Gas bulbs

Little balloons lift it up.

Each blade has a small gas-filled bulb at its base. They float the kelp up toward the sunlight.

Full speed

Up to 60 cm in one day.

In the right conditions, giant kelp can grow about 60 cm a day. That's fast enough to almost watch it happen.

A forest

A forest under the sea.

Giant kelp can reach over 40 m tall and spread across the surface, building a forest that hundreds of species call home.

a single spore

tap the scene to play with it

One day, sped up

How fast is 60 cm a day?

Scroll through 24 hours. The kelp grows next to a diver, your hair and your nails at the same speed they really grow.

00:00time of day

0 cmkelp grown

0.00 mmyour hair grown

Midnight. The kelp is already growing.

Try it yourself

Grow a forest.

Scroll and the forest grows. Tap the seafloor to plant kelp, tap the water to feed the fish, and move close to scare them.

0kelp planted

0 mtallest

0fish

Who lives here

A forest is never empty.

Sea otters

Otters wrap themselves in kelp while they sleep, so they don't drift away.

Sea urchins

Urchins eat kelp. Otters eat urchins, which keeps the forest standing.

Fish

Hundreds of species find food and shelter between the stalks.

Sunlight

Kelp drinks in sunlight and takes in carbon dioxide as it grows.

Mini game · 30 seconds

Stop the urchins.

Hungry urchins are climbing the kelp. Tap them before they reach the blades and start eating. In real life, sea otters do this job.

0urchins caught

100%forest left

0your best

Tap Start, then tap the urchins.

Make it yours

Name your kelp.

Give it a name and plant it. Your kelp gets its own shape, joins the forest above, and keeps growing while you're here. Save the card and post it.

If it grew at top speed every day

From nothing to the surface.

day 1

0.6 m

Knee high on a toddler

One day at full speed. Already longer than your arm.

day 7

4.2 m

Taller than a giraffe

One week in, the stalk sways over the divers.

day 30

18 m

A six-story building

The gas bulbs keep every blade floating up.

day 60

36 m

Almost at the light

The surface shimmers just above the tip.

canopy

40 m+

It reaches the surface

The blades spread out across the top and make a golden roof.

seed

You

Plant one

Every forest starts with one spore that holds on.

Start small. Hold on. Reach for the light. Every day a little higher, until one day it's a forest. That's kelp. That's $KELP.

Growing right now

Since you opened this page.

0.0000 mm

how much one giant kelp at full speed has grown while you've been here

0:00time on the page

0 cma forest of 10,000 kelp grew

0Solana blocks since you arrived

6.9 µmkelp grows every second