UC specimens and range limits for Scinaia confusa

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

View map from the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

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Illustration from DeCew's Guide to the Seaweeds of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Northern California

Scinaia Bivona 1822

Thalli cylindrical, constricted or not constricted, multiaxial. Medulla consisting of relatively few longitudinal filaments; cortex differentiated into inner layer of loosely entwined, slender filaments, and an outer layer of variously shaped photosynthetic cells 2 or 3 cells thick. Outermost layer in mature portions of axes consisting of colorless inflated cells, these squarish in cross section in some species, palisade-like in others and forming an epidermis. Monosporangia present in some species. Tetrasporangia borne on microscopic, filamentous phase known in 2 species, but unknown in material from Calif. Spermatangia in continuous surface sori. Gonimoblasts embedded in outer cortical cells, surrounded by sterile filaments.

Pseudogloiophloea confusa (Setch.) Levr.

Gloiophloea confusa Setchell 1914b: 118; Smith 1944: 190. Pseudogloiophloea confusa (Setch.) Levring 1956: 8; Ramus 1969: 1.

Thalli dark red, 3-15 cm tall; subtidal plants taller than intertidal specimens, those of intertidal exposed to wave shock shorter than all others and tending to dark brownish-red; axes regularly dichotomously branched, often with proliferous clusters in basal portions of branches; apices of branches tapering, otherwise branches (1)2-5 mm diam., of nearly uniform diam. throughout; cortex thick, loosely arranged.

Infrequent, but widely distributed, saxicolous, mid- to subtidall(10 m), Hope I., Br. Columbia, to Pta. San Quintin, Baja Calif.; more collections known from Monterey southward than to north. Type locality: Monterey, Calif.

Except for being shorter, these plants are externally very similar to Pseudoscinaia snyderiae. Ramus (1969) found monoecious plants from Jalama (Santa Barbara Co. ), Calif., to be slightly different in anatomy and response to culture conditions from dioecious plants collected at Moss Beach (San Mateo Co.,), Calif.; these differences have not been resolved as taxonomic distinctions.

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

Notes: Huisman (1985) merged Pseudogloiophloea with Scinaia, the latter generic name having priority.