- Blue markers: specimen records
- Yellow marker: type locality, if present
- Red markers: endpoints of range from literature
Gigartina volans (C. Ag.) J. Ag.
Sphaerococcus volans C. Agardh 1821: pl. 18. Gigartina volans (C. Ag.) J. Agardh 1846: pl. 18; Setchell & Gardner 1933: 279; Smith 1944: 282. G. velifera J. Ag. 1899: 41; S. & G. 1933: 280. Rhodoglossum linguiforme Dawson 1958: 73; 1961a: 259.
Thalli of two strongly dimorphic shapes: tetrasporangial thalli without papillae, the surfaces of thalli plane, thick (rather like Iridaea cordata var. splendens except for presence of lateral branchlets or their remnants near lower margins), branched more or less dichotomously 2 or 3 times from simple or branching compressed stipes, the blades lanceolate, tapering at apices; other thalli with simple or lobed blades, the apices broadly rounded, the margins and surfaces crowded with ovate, obovate, sometimes stipitate, randomly occurring, foliar proliferations, with or without papillae; all thalli in loose clumps, with several erect blades from common holdfasts, 10-20(40) cm tall, divided dichotomously once or twice or not divided; dark purple with brown, the stipe branched, compressed, 4-20 cm long, the apophyses sometimes clearly marked; fertile blades of all 3 kinds of thalli differing, the tetrasporangial blades without proliferations, or papillae, the sori embedded in surface layers, the spermatangial blades with obovate-ovate superficial leaflets, these bearing spermatangial sori, the cystocarpic blades with predominantly marginal papillae, 0.5-1 cm long, bearing 3-6 cystocarps terminally and occasionally laterally.
Locally abundant in sand-scoured areas, low intertidal and subtidal (to 10 m), N. Ore. to Pta. Maria, Baja Calif. Type locality: probably W. coast of N. America, possibly Monterey, Calif.
Excerpt from Abbott, I. A., & Hollenberg, G. J. (1976). Marine algae of California. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. xii [xiii] + 827 pp., 701 figs.