This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8fVS78tvzU) says that seaweed is written like 海草、but Google Translate later told me it's instead 海藻, with 藻 as the second Kanji instead of 草. I know GT shouldn't be trusted, but I Google Image searched 海藻 and got pictures of seaweed, so.. can someone tell me which really means seaweed?
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1Apparently, 海草 is "seagrass" while 海藻 is "seaweed" proper. – senshin Jul 4 '15 at 3:40
If you mean edible seaweed, 海藻 is right to use. Nori, wakame, mozuku, hiziki and mekabu are all 海藻. They look like http://bit.ly/1gfJick
In Japan, usually, people don't eat 海草. Dugongs like to eat 海草. http://www.arkive.org/dugong/dugong-dugon/video-01a.html
海草 is often used to mean 海藻 by mistake.
海藻 = seaweed,
海草 = spermatophyta living in sea (water).
For details, see -> https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%B7%E8%97%BB together with https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%B7%E8%8D%89.
