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Laminaria digitata: A checkered career

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Conclusion

Over the past one hundred years, this extraordinarily versatile species of seaweed has played a significant role in the prosperity of a number of diverse industries. Recent legalization of abortion in the United States and in much of the rest of the world—serving to accentuate the age-old problem of uterine access—has now brought theLaminaria tent industry into the inventory of viable economic uses of this seaweed. As a factor in “population control,” this important aspect of its usefulness is only now coming to be fully realized.

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Rubin, B. Laminaria digitata: A checkered career. Econ Bot 31, 66–71 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02860655

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