- 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
Gigartina papillata (C. Ag.) J. Ag.
Sphaerococcus papillatus C. Agardh 1821: pl. 19. Gigartina papillata (C. Ag.) J. Agardh 1846: pl. 19; Setchell & Gardner 1933: 287; Smith 1944: 283 (incl. synonymy); Abbott 1972b: 261. Chondrus mamillosus var. sitchensis Ruprecht 1851: 318. G. sitchensis (Rupr.) Kjellman 1889a: 31; Yendo 1916: 57. G. dichotoma Gardner 1927a: 333. G. mamillosa sensu Doty 1947b: 180; Scagel 1957: 187. C. papillata f. cristata Setchell, P.B.-A. 1895-1919 1898: no. 426. G. cristata (Setch.) S. & G. 1933: 289; Smith 1944: 283.
Thalli rarely more than 15 cm tall, with several erect, complanate to foliose branches, these linear, lanceolate, palmately divided, with dichotomous apices, or fimbriate, or apices not divided; thalli of at least 4 major growth forms differing in width and shape of portions of thallus, and by distribution and size of papillae; tetrasporangia occurring in crustose stage known as the independent genus "Petrocelis"; spermatangial thalli lacking papillae, light rose to yellowish; cystocarpic thalli dark brown.
Common, saxicolous, high to middle intertidal, Alaska to Pta. Baja, Baja Calif.; common in N. and C. Calif. as the top 0.5-1.0 m band of brownishred algae throughout the middle and high intertidal; less dominant south of Santa Barbara. Also known from Japan. Type locality: probably San Francisco, Calif.
The large number of synonyms is a reflection of the great variability shown by plants of this species, probably the most common red alga on the Pacific Coast.
Excerpt from Abbott, I. A., & Hollenberg, G. J. (1976). Marine algae of California. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. xii [xiii] + 827 pp., 701 figs.
