Phylum: Phaeophyta

Class: Phaeophyceae

Order: Fucales

Family: Cystoceiraceae

Cystoseira geminata (C. Agardh)

 

Description: This plant is profusely branched, yellowish brown to dark brown in colour, reaching a height of 2-5 m.  The plant is fastened to the substrate by a stout discoid holdfast.  A short, terete stipe arises from the holdfast.  This stipe is soon dissected into a number of stout radially arranged primary branches, which in turn bear long filiform secondary branches.  The long filiform branches produce shorter alternately arranged tertiary branchlets.  Near the base these tertiary branchlets undergo a few divisions, become markedly flattened and leaf-like, and give the basal region of the plant the appearance of a fern frond.  These flattened branches are short, lanceolate in shape, with smooth margins, and are ribless.  The ultimate branchlets have inflations, or air vesicles, borne singly or in pairs or chains.

 

Habitat:  On rocks in the lower intertidal and upper subtidal zones.

 

Pacific Coast Distribution:  Bering Sea to Washington.

                                                                                      Robert Scagel, 1972

 

C. geminata subtidally at Race Rocks

A branch of C. geminata shown by Joe Downham

Photo from Japan showing holdfast of C. geminata

Diagrams by Ernani G. MeÔez from Scagel (1972)

 

 

Phylum: Phaeophyta

Class: Phaeophyceae

Order: Dictyosiphonales

Family: Dictyosiphonaceae

Coilodesme californica (Ruprecht) Kjellman

 

Description: This plant is a linear to obovate flaccid sac, smooth at first, becoming markedly flattened, wrinkled and with the upper end frequently frayed at maturity.  It is light olive tan in colour, 25-35 cm. long and up to 12 cm. wide, and occurs as an epiphyte on Cystoseira (see above).  The basal portion tapers abruptly to a short cylindrical stipe and a small discoid holdfast.

 

Habitat:  Epiphytic on Cystoseira geminata.

 

Pacific Coast Distribution:  British Columbia to Mexico

                                                                                      Robert Scagel, 1972

 

 

Coilodesme californica growing epiphytically on Cystoseira geminata

Picture from Japan of Coilodesme californica on Cystoseira sp.

 

Diagrams by Ernani G. MeÔez from Scagel (1972)