- 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
Microcladia Greville 1830
Thalli erect, without creeping basal portions. Branching of 5-7 orders, usually in 1 plane, distichous, regularly alternate or appearing pectinate. Branches terete to strongly compressed, the apices forcipate; cells large, uniseriate, uninucleate, the plant corticated throughout by irregular cells of various sizes. Tetrasporangia tetrahedrally divided, embedded in cor tical cells, borne on branches of last 3 orders. Spermatangia in continuous layers on ultimate branches. Procarps with 2 carpogonial branches on each supporting cell. Mature cystocarps globose, all cells of cystocarp be coming carposporangia; cystocarps with or without involucre.
Microcladia borealis Rupr.
Ruprecht 1851 : 259; Smith 1944: 330.
Thalli 8-20 cm tall, deep red, with entangled, partly rhizomatous bases. Erect branches to 1 mm diam, tufted, branching from middle and top portions, the branches unilateral, pectinate, with pectination in successive orders alternate. Branches of first and second orders arcuate and curving away from apex of axis or branch bearing them; branches of higher orders incurved and with forcipate tips. Tetrasporangia and spermatangia as for genus. Fertile female branches congested; cystocarps involucrate.
Common on high rocks exposed to surf, occasionally epiphytic, Alaska to San Luis Obispo Co., Calif. Type locality: Unalaska, Alaska.
Excerpt from Abbott, I. A., & Hollenberg, G. J. (1976). Marine algae of California. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. xii [xiii] + 827 pp., 701 figs.
