UC specimens and range limits for Laminaria farlowii

• 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

Notes: There are reports of isolated populations in Vancouver and Gabriola islands, British Columbia, Canada with a substantial disjunction to the south. It is odd and notable that, currently, this species is apparently very rare north of Point Conception, although there are many reports from the Monterey Peninsula and San Francisco in the past. It was recently collected in Santa Cruz, California (UC2050577, UC2050578).

Status: This species is rare in its northern range, but easy to identify in subtidal populations in the southern Channel Islands. Laminaria cordata Dawson may belong to this species.

Habitat: Growing on rocks, sometimes in muddy or sandy habitats; subtidal.

Life History: Alternation of heteromorphic phases (large diploid sporophyte and microscopic haploid dioecious gametophytes).

Associated Taxa: In southern part of its range, often found with Agarum fimbriatum and, at greater depths, Pelagophycus porra.

Epiphytes: Spirorbis tube worms commonly in depressions on blade; small brown filamentous algae

Search Sequences in GenBank

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

Laminaria farlowii Setch.

Setchell 1893: 355; Setchell & Gardner 1925: 599; Smith 1944: 136.

Sporangial thalli perennial, fertile in late summer, to 5 m tall, dark chocolate brown; holdfast of strong, compact, branching haptera; single stipe short, terete, flattening suddenly to single blade, the stipe 4-7 cm long, 4-6 mm diam., without mucilage ducts; blade thick, coriaceous, abundantly bullate, with relatively deep depressions, these more or less in longitudinal rows over both sides of blade; mucilage ducts in blade scanty; original blade persistent, not shed annually.

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: Blade width varies, as does degree of bullation, depending on water motion and depth. Unusual forms occur on San Nicolas island (e.g., UC2025804, UC1833511). Laminaria cordata Dawson may belong here if it is not, indeed, a separate species, although MAC places it as a synonym of Laminaria setchellii (see UC1883801, UC925016, UC978541, UC1982801).