Chaetomorpha cartilaginea M.Howe

• Region

  South America

• Country

  Peru

• Locality

  Chincha Islands, on surf-washed rocks

• Coordinates

  -13.6407, -76.3947

• Coordinate Uncertainty (m)

  2241

• Geodetic Datum

  WGS84

• Distribution

  Map all specimens of this taxon

î OTA NIC AL

BOT A NIC AIL

THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN

MARINE ALGAE OF PERU, COLLECTED BY ROBERT E. COKER

UJJb /’T-Cr-Cs'Jl^s?

TYPE OF:

CvtAexOVIO?.?PrA	CAQCUU^G \ K<£A H

Vo&USHfCî^ »M: V^GH.	^(X-

_VANESI	(Ho\ '200~}

Determined by Harry K. Phinney

t\N YO«^

OTANICAL

Specialized, being 10-15 mm. long (or even 24 mm. long in Kiitz-
ing’s figure of C. pacifica [macropus], Tab. Phyc. 3: pi. 60. f. Ill)
as compared with 2-4.5 mm. long in C. cartilaginea, and the fila-
ments of C. antennina are rigid in the basal parts only, being flaccid
above, with constrictions at most of the septa.

Plate 3, figures 11-13. Chaetomorpha cartilaginea
11 and 12. Basal parts of two filaments.

13. Cells from near the apex of a filament, showing thick laminated walls, etc.

All figures from the type material (Coker 196 p.p.). Figure 11 is enlarged 7
diameters; figures 12 and 13, 22 diameters.

>Muu

Chaetomorpha cartilagínea M. A. Howe

Volume 15, Plate 3

Mem. Torrey Club

Chaetomorpha cartilaginea sp. nov.

Filaments erect, often twisted by wave action, rather rigid and
Cartilaginous-corneous throughout, attaining a height of 16 cm.,
affixed by branching rhizoids and more or less rhizomatous at
base, mostly 250-400 ß in diameter, though only 150-170 ¡jl in
lower part of basal cell, not constricted at septa; cells cylindric,
usually 2-7 times longer than broad ; the basal cell 2-4.5 mm. long!
10-20 times as long as its average diameter; cell walls con-
spicuously lamellate or delaminating internally except in youngest
parts, becoming 25-110/x thick. [Plate 3, figures 11-13;
PLATE 5.]

Growing on surf-washed rocks, Chincha Islands, June 18, 1907,
Coker iq6 p.p.—type. Also, what is probably a form of the same
thing, but with short cells, mostly %— 1^ times as long as broad,
and without basal parts, in beach drift, La Punta, region of Callao,
Jan. 25, 1907, Coker 38 p.p. Near San Lorenzo Island, not far
from La Punta, old and battered specimens were dredged in 2^/2
fathoms (Coker 59 p.p.) with ceils of a character about intermediate
between those of no. 38 and those of the type; these dredged
specimens are without basal parts and in two cases cells were
observed that were beginning to put forth diverticula somewhat
after the fashion of Rhizoclonium, but it is probable that these
were simply efforts of old detached filaments of a Chaetomorpha
to regenerate or attach themselves. The remarkably thick
laminated walls and the cylindrical unconstricted segments are
common to all three collections.

The type form of Chaetomorpha cartilaginea bears a slight
resemblance to the more rigid conditions of Chaetomorpha aerea
(Dillw.) Kiitz., which is sometimes considered an attached form
or variety of the earlier-published Chaetomorpha Linum (O. F.
Müll.) Kiitz.; but C. cartilaginea is attached by widely spreading
and branching hapteres, while C. aerea has a discoid or scutate
base; the basal cell of C. cartilaginea is 10-20 times as long as
broad, while in C. aerea it is 2-10 times as long as broad; the cells
in the attached type specimen of C. cartilaginea average to be
much longer than in C. aerea, though this is not the case in one

Chaetomorpha	37

of the unattached specimens that we are somewhat doubtfully
identifying with C. cartilaginea; the thickness of the cell wall in
Chaetomorpha evidently varies with the age and state of preserva-
tion of the specimen, but we never have seen the walls so uniformly
and strongly thickened in any specimens identified with C. aerea
or C. Linum.

Chaetomorpha cartilaginea doubtless finds its closest relative in
C. antennina (Bory) Kiitz., of which C. pacifica Kiitz. is probably
a synonym. With C. antennina, C. cartilaginea agrees in the
nature of its holdfast and in the character of the basal cell it is
perhaps nearer to that than to the C. aerea group. But the basal
cell of the genuine C. antennina* is much longer and more highly

* The type of Conferva antennina Bory (Voyage dans les quatre principales îles
des mers d’Afrique 2: 161. 1804) from Ile Réunion (Bourbon) is preserved in tlje
herbarium of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle at Paris and we have been allowed the
privilege of examining it through the courtesy of Professor Mangin and Monsieur
Hariot. Its filaments are 4-9 cm. long, flaccid above the rigid one-celled base, much
crumpled, collapsed, and contorted towards the apices; the basal cell is commonly
10 mm. and often more than 15 mm. long, 20-40 times longer than its average di-
ameter, increasing in diameter from about 150-200/x at base to 500-580^ above;
though the filament above the basal cell is more slender, being mostly 270-400/i ia
diameter; cells above mostly %-ij^ times as long as broad, with constrictions at
most of the septa; cell walls, exclusive of basal parts, usually 6-16¡x thick. Most, at
least, of the so-called Chaetomorpha antennina from the West Indies has a much shorter