UC specimens and range limits for Rhodochorton purpureum

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

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Rhodochorton Nageli 1862

Thalli diminutive, 1-3(4) cm tall, filamentous, tufted, with prostrate creeping portions bearing erect filaments, these sparingly branched. Chloroplasts discoid, few to many per cell, small, without pyrenoids. Tetrasporangia cruciately divided, or plants rarely bearing bisporangia in field collections. Gametophytes in some species, these known only in culture, less than 200 µm long, dioecious. Spermatangia clustered terminally on short, erect axes. Carpogonia sessile on prostrate filaments, or on short, secondary, erect branches, single or clustered and terminal. Intercalary cells of prostrate filaments occasionally differentiated into carpogonia. Zygote after fertilization dividing transversely; upper cell producing primary gonimoblast initial; lower cell repeatedly producing secondary gonimoblast initials, these dividing without branching and forming terminal tetrasporangia; at this stage this portion of plant sometimes becoming independent.

Rhodochorton purpureum ( Lightf.) Rosenv.

Byssus purpurea Lightfoot 1777: 1000. Rhodochorton purpureum (Lightf.) Rosenvinge 1900: 75; Papenfuss 1945: 327 (incl. synonymy). R. tenue Kylin 1925: 44; West 1969: 12.

Thalli tufted, densely intertwined basally, with erect filaments 10-15 mm tall; filaments sparingly branched, the secondary branchlets nearly the size of primary axes; cells (10)15-20 µm wide, 1.5-3 times as long; tetrasporangia in compact clusters in upper portions of plants; sexual reproduction as described for genus.

Common, especially in shaded areas such as shallow caves, high intertidal, Humboldt Co. to San Diego Co., Calif.; especially common on shale in Santa Cruz Co. Widely distributed in N. Hemisphere. Type locality: Scotland.

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