Membranoptera weeksiae
Setchell & N.L. GardnerDatabase links
- Blue markers: specimen records
- Yellow marker: type locality, if present
- Red markers: endpoints of range from literature
Membranoptera Stackhouse 1809
Thalli erect or procumbent from small, conical holdfasts, alternately or subdichotomously divided into broad or linear blades. Blades with per current midrib more than 1 cell thick; portions lateral to midrib monostromatic and with or without diagonal parallel veins, occasionally with small proliferous blades from midrib and lateral veins. Internal cells with 3 orders of branching; terminal cells of third order not reaching margin; intercalary divisions within cell rows not occurring. Tetrasporangia tetrahedrally divided, in sori at blade apices, or scattered on either side of midrib and main lateral veins. Spermatangia in sori at blade apices, or scattered along midrib in upper halves of blades. Cystocarps borne on midrib, surrounded by hemispherical pericarp; carposporangia in chains.
Membranoptera weeksiae S. & G.
Setchell & Gardner 1926a: 209; Smith 1944: 337.
Thalli ribbonlike, repeatedly branched, 3-5(9) cm tall in small, soft bushes, bright rose red; branching of 4-6 orders, usually alternate but occasionally subopposite or unilateral; with inconspicuous midribs and no lateral veins, the divisions remaining 0.5-1.5 mm broad throughout length if not eroded; margins smooth.
Epiphytic (on Desmarestia latifrons especially, but also on other algae) or saxicolous, low intertidal to subtidal (to 30 m), Wash. to San Diego, Calif.; especially common in spring near Pacific Grove, Calif. (type lo cality).
Excerpt from Abbott, I. A., & Hollenberg, G. J. (1976). Marine algae of California. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. xii [xiii] + 827 pp., 701 figs.
Notes: It is interesting to note that Kylin's monograph on the Delesseriaceae (1924) was not cited in the paper in which M. multiramosa and M. weeksiae were described, suggesting that Setchell & Gardner thought that their species were so distinct from Kylin's species M. tenuis as to make comparison unnecessary.
