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Whether as an ingredient in soups or salads, in the broth dashi, or as a topping or a quick snack, the various forms of sea kelp are a versatile, nutritious, and extremely tasty part of Japanese cuisine.

These many forms of the brown algae known as Laminaria grow over hundreds of square kilometers of Japan’s ocean, from the frigid waters off northern Hokkaido all the way to subtropical Okinawa. Processed and used in different ways, the many different varieties, from familiar konbu and nori to exotic ogonori and tosaka, are a big part of why Japanese cuisine is such a unique adventure.

Sea kelp’s essential nutrients are staggering: Calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, iodine, phosphorus, zinc, and a wealth of crucial B vitamins (including hard-to-get B6 and B12), as well as Vitamins C, E, and K—and even large amounts of protein—make sea kelp one of the planet’s healthiest foods.

Each type of kelp is different, and each is used for very different purposes. Both ogonori and tosaka, which are preserved with salt, are eaten only as cold salads. Nori is eaten only after being dried and otherwise processed, while wakame, sweeter, lighter, and silkier in texture, is dried and then rehydrated—but doesn’t benefit from much cooking.

Kanten (known elsewhere as agar-agar) is virtually flavorless but is renowned as a replacement for gelatin, free of the animal sources of other gelatins, and is thus perfect for vegetarian cooking. Mozuku, usually eaten with rice vinegar, is said to have anti-cancer properties.

The big three seaweeds used in Japanese cuisine are konbu, wakame, and the seaweed that started it all, and whose name was the original generic name for all seaweed: nori.

Wakame is a popular sea kelp.

Konbu (Laminaria japonica), for instance, has practically no protein, while nori is nearly half protein (by weight) and is loaded with vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A and B1, and crucial zinc, iron, and calcium. It is also high in dietary fiber and amino acids, including glutamine, which can be credited for bringing the world the “fifth taste,” umami (the other four being, of course, sweet, salty, bitter, and sour).

If that doesn’t make you want to eat it every day, you’ll want to know that a group of researchers in Great Britain discovered in 2010 that konbu’s fiber (alginate) helps prevent fat absorption. Like every seaweed, it is very low in calories, can help reduce swelling, improve liver function, clean the blood, and decrease cholesterol levels.

Konbu is equally important for its use as a key ingredient in the all-important seasoning, dashi. Cooked together with dried flakes of the bonito fish and the water of rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, dashi assures that the flavor of konbu works its way into dishes in which you may not see seaweed at all.

Nori was originally the generic Japanese word for seaweed but now refers to this specific species of red algae. For a millennium nori was eaten as a paste, but it is now known as the product of the 18th-century process of rack drying, similar to papermaking, that produces the paper-thin green-black sheets that are used in sushi making, to cover rice balls, as a snack on its own, and in shredded form, as a popular topping on various noodle soups. It is perhaps the best-known (and most-eaten) form of seaweed in the West.

An interesting historical note: After calamitous harvests in the 1940s and 1950s, nori cultivation declined, as did its consumption. It was given an unlikely rebirth when an English scientist named Kathleen Drew-Baker discovered an improved way of cultivating the plant, through her studies of a similar kelp in Wales. When Japanese scientist Sokichi Segawa found her work, Japan’s understanding of nori cultivation was enhanced and production resumed. Baker was rewarded with a posthumous statue in Uto City in Kumamoto Prefecture and the honorific “Mother of the Sea.”

Wakame (undaria) is the third and newest of the most popular sea kelps and has been cultivated in any significant quantity only since the early 1960s. It can be eaten fresh and is particularly enjoyable in the seasonal soup suimono, paired with fresh bamboo shoots. Or it can be dried and reconstituted for use in sunomono, a rice vinegar-flavored salad that also includes cucumbers.

Seaweeds are also seasonal, so if they’re not pickled or dried, you’ll find different varieties available depending on when you’re in Japan. But whenever you go, and whatever your destination, you are sure to find at least one dish—and usually many—whose flavor, texture, nutrition, and even appearance depend on this versatile Japanese ingredient.