UC specimens and range limits for Dictyopteris undulata

• 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: From Castle Rock, San Miguel Island through southern California (including the Channel Islands, except Santa Rosa), Baja California, Mexico and mainland Mexico. Also Japan and Korea.

Status: This species is distinctive, due to its midrib, but has not been compared genetically with Asian populations with this name. A second species, studied but not formally described (M. Benson, pers. comm.), occurs in deeper (>20m) subtidal regions. While morphologically similar to D. undulata, it lacks iridescence and has a strong smell reminiscent of carrots. It has been collected at Santa Cruz, Anacapa, Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and South Coronados islands.

Habitat: Shallow kelp forests and sand-associated habitats

Life History: Alternation of isomorphic generations

Search Sequences in GenBank

Dictyopteris Lamouroux 1809

Thalli densely and irregularly dichotomous, with percurrent midrib, tomentose below. Growth in apical row of cells. Sporangial sori numerous along both sides of midrib. Oogonial and antheridial sori scattered. Plants exhibiting a bluish iridescence under water.

Dictyopteris undulata Holmes

Holmes 1896: 251; Abbott 1972b: 260. Dictyopteris zonarioides Farlow 1899: 73. Neurocarpus zonarioides (Farl.) Howe 1914: 69; Setchell & Gardner 1925: 656.

Thalli irregularly dichotomous, yellowish-brown to olive, drying to nearly black, 8-l2(24) cm tall; short terminal branches with prominent midrib, the apices broad-obtuse or slightly retuse. Sporangia common.

Frequent on rocks, lower intertidal pools to subtidal (36 m), Santa Monica and Santa Catalina I., Calif., to San Jose del Cabo and into upper Gulf of Calif., Mexico. Type locality: Japan.

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: D. johnstonei is considered an ecological form of D. undulata, probably associated with intense herbivore grazing and/or regeneration after damage.