UC specimens and range limits for Neoptilota californica

• Blue markers: specimen records
• Yellow marker: type locality, if present
• Red markers: endpoints of range from literature

View map from the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

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Illustration from DeCew's Guide to the Seaweeds of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Northern California

Neoptilota Kylin 1956

Thalli differing from those of Ptilota principally in having 1 of each pair of laterals remaining determinate and never bearing reproductive structures; in fertile thalli, every alternate branch thus sterile and opposite fertile branch. Tetrasporangia developing from short, indeterminate branchlets, in small clusters without sterile filaments; when mature, branchlet nearly entirely converted to bearing spores. Spermatangia rare, in continuous sori on adaxial side of branchlet. Cystocarps 1 to several, developed simultaneously on indeterminate branchlet.

Neoptilota californica (Harv.) Kyl.

Ptilota californica Harvey 1853: 222; Smith 1944: 332. Neoptilota californica (Harv.) Kylin 1956: 392; Abbott 1972b: 263.

Thalli epiphytic, to 85 cm tall, with strongly developed and compressed main axes and major laterals, dark red to reddish-brown, alternately branched; branch apices drooping; branchlets of higher orders crowded, lying close to axes, when dried giving thallus furry appearance; determinate branchlets simple, opposite each pinnately divided branchlet that becomes fertile; ultimate branchlets with minute serrations on some abaxial margins, most margins appearing smooth; reproductive structures as for genus.

Infrequent, epiphytic on Laminaria sinclairii or on some other Laminariales, low intertidal to shallow subtidal, Br. Columbia to San Luis Obispo Co., Calif. Also known from Japan. Type locality: "California borealis rossica," probably near Fort Ross (Sonoma Co.), Calif.

The previously reported (Smith, 1944) wider distribution of this species is not borne out by our examination of specimens. Most specimens have proved to be Ptilota filicina; the gross habit of these thalli reminds one of young, developing Neoptilota densa, but the branching resembles that of P. filicina.

Excerpt from Abbott, I. A., & Hollenberg, G. J. (1976). Marine algae of California. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. xii [xiii] + 827 pp., 701 figs.