- Blue markers: specimen records
- Yellow marker: type locality, if present
- Red markers: endpoints of range from literature
Illustration from DeCew's Guide to the Seaweeds of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Northern California
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 hypnoides (Harv.) Kyl.
Ptilota hypnoidcs Harvey 1833b: 164; 1853: 220; Smith 1944: 332. Neoptilota hypnoides (Harv.) Kylin 1956: 393; Abbott 1972b: 263.
Thalli erect, dark brownish-red, 10-25 cm tall, regularly branched, plumose, axes 1 to several, the central axes not strongly developed; branches not crowded; fertile branchlets opposite spinelike (determinate) branch and alternating on either side of axis; branchlets smooth, curving because of stronger development of abaxial over adaxial margin; reproductive structures as for genus.
Occasional, saxicolous or epiphytic on articulated corallines, low intertidal to subtidal (to 10 m), Alaska to San Luis Obispo Co., Calif. Type locality: Monterey, Calif.
Northern specimens attributed to this species should be carefully studied, since Neoptilota asplenioides, reported from the N. Pacific, is similar except for serrate edges on the adaxial surface of leaflets, smooth abaxial surfaces, and longer thalli.
Excerpt from Abbott, I. A., & Hollenberg, G. J. (1976). Marine algae of California. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. xii [xiii] + 827 pp., 701 figs.
