Codium amplivesiculatum Setchell & N. L. Gardner

Codium amplivesiculatum Setchell et N. L. Gardner

Codium amplivesiculatum Setchell et N. L. Gardner, 1924a:709, pl. 15: figs. 28, 29, pl. 35; Dawson, 1944:217; Dawson, 1959a:7, 16; Dawson, 1961b:381; Norris, 1973:4, 17; Norris, 1985:208; Espinoza-Ávalos, 1993:333; González-González et al., 1996:132; Pacheco-Ruíz and Zertuche-González, 1996a:432; Núñez-López et al., 1998:39; Pedroche et al., 2002:40, figs. 42–53; R. Aguilar-Rosas et al., 2005b:36; Pedroche et al., 2005:69; Servière-Zaragoza et al., 2007:7; Pacheco-Ruíz et al., 2008:202; Riosmena-Rodríguez and Holguín-Acosta, 2008:1, figs. 1–12.

Codium decorticatum sensu Howe, 1911:494; Setchell and Gardner, 1930:130; Taylor, 1939:9; Huerta-M, 1978:339; Mateo-Cid and Mendoza-González, 1992:25 [in part; see Pedroche et al., 2005:72]; Mateo-Cid et al., 1993:52 [with a query]; González-González et al., 1996:369 [Gulf specimens only]; Silva et al., 1996b:235 [non Codium decorticatum (Woodward) M. Howe, 1911:494].

Codium dichotomum sensu Taylor, 1945:68; Dawson, 1949:229 [in part; see Pedroche et al., 2002:40] [non Codium dichotomum (Hudson) S. F. Gray, 1821:293].

Codium fernandezianum sensu Taylor, 1945:71 [in part; see Pedroche et al., 2002:40] [non Codium fernandezianum Setchell, 1937a:592].

Codium longiramosum Setchell et N. L. Gardner, 1924a:710, pl. 15: fig. 27, pl. 37; Taylor, 1945:70 [in part]; Dawson, 1961b:382; Dawson, 1966b:55; Stewart and Stewart, 1984:140; González-González et al., 1996:134.

Codium magnum E. Y. Dawson, 1950f:298, fig. 1; Dawson, 1961b:382; Dawson, 1962c:278, 280; Huerta-Múzquiz, 1978:336; Huerta-Múzquiz and Mendoza-González, 1985:44; Ibarra-Obando and R. Aguilar-Rosas, 1985:96; Mendoza-González and Mateo-Cid, 1985:22; Sánchez-Rodríguez et al., 1989:36, 38–39; Rocha-Ramírez and Siqueiros-Beltrones, 1991:30; Mateo-Cid and Mendoza-González, 1994a:52; González-González et al., 1996:134; Rodríguez-Morales and Siqueiros-Beltrones, 1999:22; Riosmena-Rodríguez et al., 2005:101.

Algae erect, mostly cylindrical, up to 85 cm tall (largest to 10 m in length; Pedroche et al., 2002); simple or branched dichotomously to subdichotomously (or sometimes trichotomously); branches usually flattened at dichotomies; attached below by a spongy mass of rhizoidal filaments. Lower branches (6–)13–20 mm in diameter, often with long interdichotomies, up to 40 cm in length; dichotomies flattened, up to 10 cm wide. Upward branches gradually narrowing to apices, (1–)3–10 mm in diameter. Medullary filaments, 25–110 µm in diameter, with lateral cell wall thickenings (‘cellulose plugs”). Utricles cylindrical to clavate, (840–)1180–1930(–3025) µm in length, and (140–)230–410(–655) µm in diameter in upper portions, and near the base (40–)110–235(–385) µm in diameter; utricle apices truncate or rounded, 4.5–8.0 µm thick; utricle wall sides 1.5–2.3 µm thick; hairs and scars present, never abundant, about 220 µm below the apices.

Gametangia elongated, fusiform to ovate, wider at their base, (160–)255–340(–430) µm long by (46–)90–140(–170) µm in diameter; borne about (370–)450–600 (–750) µm below the utricle apex on short pedicel, up to 15 µm long.

HABITAT. Attached or free-floating in esteros or lagoons; on rocks; low intertidal to shallow subtidal, usually 0.5 to 17 m depths.

DISTRIBUTION. Gulf of California: Puerto Refugio, Isla Ángel de la Guarda to Punta Arena (north of Cabo Pulmo). Pacific coast: Bahía de San Quintín to Bahía Magdalena; Isla Cedros; Isla Guadalupe; Isla Clarión and Isla Socorro (Islas Revillegigdo); Nayarit to Jalisco.

TYPE LOCALITY. Drift, most likely Isla Estanque (also known as Pond Island and Isla La Bibera); however, Setchell and Gardner (1924a:709) only stated “near south end of [Isla] Ángel de la Guarda, Gulf of California.”