Algae Identification and Phycology Lecture Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering brown, green, and red algae species identification, morphology, ecological habitats, and phylum-level biochemical traits.

Alaria marginata

Commonly known as winged or ribbon kelp; features a prominent mid-rib along its blade and lives in dense strands on wave-exposed coastlines.

Analipus japonicus

Commonly known as sea fir or bottlebrush seaweed; forms densely branched tubes with a perennial base whose uprights burn off and die mid-summer, producing again the following year in the intertidal zone.

Costaria costata

Known as five-ribbed kelp; features solitary blades with $5$ mid-ribs (sometimes alternating with $3$ on front and $2$ on back) and produces spores in patches on blade surfaces; found draped over sheltered and moderately exposed intertidal and subtidal habitats.

Desmarestia herbacea

Known as acid weed; produces sulfuric acid in vacuoles that burst when herbivores bite, effectively defending against calcified mouthparts in subtidal understory habitats.

Ectocarpus commensalis

Known as maidens hair; a filamentous brown alga that grows as a fuzz or scuzz on kelp blades.

Egregia menziesii

Known as feather boa kelp; features long fronds that float upwards during high tide and air bladders (pneumatocysts) along a central belt-like axis (rachis).

Eisenia arborea

Known as southern sea palm; features a distinctive Y-shaped stipe. Wave-exposed subtidal forms have narrow, highly textured blades with dentate margins, whereas calm subtidal forms have broader, smoother, crispy blades.

Elachista fucicola

Known as tiny wrack bush; microscopic brown filaments grow as tiny patches of brown fuzz exclusively on wave-swept populations of Fucus distichus.

Fucus distichus

Known as rockweed; the most common macroalgae in the NE Pacific. Features inflated V-shaped branch tips (receptacles) that produce both egg and sperm, which fuse upon release.

Hedophyllum sessile

Known as sea cabbage kelp; lacks stipes and produces blades directly from its finger-like (hapteroid) holdfast in the intertidal zone, maintaining diverse populations of coralline algae and chitons under its blades.

Laminaria setchellii

Known as southern stiff-stiped kelp; grows as a single blade produced at the end of a long rigid stipe in wave-exposed areas. Can live for several years, losing blades in winter and regrowing them in spring using root-like haptera.

Lessoniopsis littoralis

Known as strap kelp or flat pompom kelp; resembles a miniature tree in low intertidal habitats, with a robust stipe and holdfast that resist wave bombardment.

Macrocystis tenuifolia

Perennial giant kelp of the northern hemisphere featuring the largest thalli, with pneumatocysts at the base of each blade floating fronds toward light.

Neoagarum fimbriatum

Known as colander kelp; produces large, puckered blades over $1\text{ m}$ long with a midrib and flattened stipe that sometimes has finger-like projections (fimbriations) in subtidal habitats.

Nereocystis luetkeana

Known as bull kelp; an annual brown alga with long snake-like thalli whose fast-growing photosynthetic blades are produced from a single pneumatocyst.

Pelvetiopsis limitata

Known as dwarf rockweed; a miniature Fucus-like brown alga that stays short, lacks midribs along its thalli, and grows exclusively on highly wave-exposed coastlines in the upper intertidal zone.

Postelsia palmaeformis

Known as sea palm; resembles a palm tree with a hollow stipe and blades bearing longitudinal grooves that guide spores onto rocks during low tide; requires constant crashing waves, often near mussel beds.

Pterygophora californica

Known as stalked kelp or walking kelp; can live $10\text{--}20\text{ years}$ with a long rigid stipe supporting an inconspicuous vegetative blade with a faint midrib surrounded by large blades (sporophylls); can grow on subtidal cobble that moves under waves.

Saccharina latissima

Known as sugar kelp; produces solitary subtidal blades from short flimsy stipes. Grows broad, ruffled, and paper-thin in wave-protected areas, or thick and smooth in wave-exposed areas to facilitate nutrient and gas exchange.

Sargassum muticum

Known as wireweed; an invasive brown alga originally from Japan found in shallow subtidal and low intertidal zones, featuring toothed blade margins buoyed by solitary, round pneumatocysts.

Chaetomorpha aerea

Known as green hair algae; an unbranched filamentous alga with coarse green threads nearly as thick as fishing line that are easy to separate; grows in tidepools, wave-swept shores, and sandy beaches.

Cladophora columbiana

Known as green pin-cushion algae; a filamentous green alga that forms dense mats with dichotomous branching near cell ends, fringing tidepools in the mid-intertidal zone.

Codium fragile

Known as dead man’s fingers; a squishy, branched green alga consisting of one contiguous cell where cells expand, branch, elongate, and weave around themselves to form utricles.

Codium setchellii

Known as green felt algae; a thick, squishy crust formed by one contiguous cell whose expanding, branching, and weaving filaments form the utricles of the thallus.

Mariprasiola sp.

A supratidal green alga forming minuscule blades less than $1\text{ cm}$ tall in high nitrogen environments; collects bird droppings and survives best where wetted by wave splash without being submerged.

Ulva fenestrata

Known as sea lettuce; features flat green blades two cells thick that do not stretch and tear easily. Can grow unattached and develops holes (fenestrae) as it grows.

Ulva intestinalis

Known as gutweed; an intertidal alga forming hollow tubes inflated with photosynthetic oxygen bubbles, often found near freshwater runoff or floating in tidepools.

Bossiella sp.

A calcified red alga growing over $10\text{ cm}$ tall with dichotomous branching and paired reproductive bumps (conceptacles) located on the face of calcified segments in intertidal and subtidal habitats.

Botryocladia hawkesii

A subtidal red alga whose bulbous branches are full of mucilage, occasionally found cast ashore or in tidepools.

Calliarthron tuberculosum

A slow-growing ($1\text{--}2\text{ mm per month}$) calcified coralline red alga that can live more than $6\text{ years}$. Calcified segments (intergenicula) are separated by flexible uncalcified cells (genicula), with conceptacles irregularly positioned on segment sides or faces.

Ceramothamnion coulteri

Known as delicate sea lace; an epiphytic red alga that grows exclusively on other algae (such as Chondracanthus, Mazzaella, or Prionitis) and never directly on rocks.

Ceramothamnion pacificum

Known as hairy pottery seaweed; a finely branched red alga growing on intertidal rocks with regular cell bands that appear striped in light, and branches ending in pincer- or claw-like tips.

Chondracanthus corymbiferus

Known as Turkish towel; a subtidal red alga with large round red blades covered in papillae. Females position fertilized eggs in unique clusters on the tips of papillae.

Chondracanthus exasperatus

Also known as Turkish towel; a subtidal red alga with large elliptical red blades covered in papillae. Females position individual eggs at the tips of papillae.

Corallina chilensis

A calcified red alga with flat, feather-like thalli and branches emerging from both sides of each main axis, bearing conceptacles at branch ends in subtidal and intertidal habitats.

Corallina vancouveriensis

A finely branched calcified coralline red alga forming dense paintbrush-like turfs that retain moisture during low tide, with conceptacles at branch tips; sometimes hangs as pendants on vertical rock faces.

Cumagloia andersonii

Known as hairy seaweed; a red alga resembling hairy reddish-brown worms hanging from intertidal rocks.

Endocladia muricata

Known as nailbrush seaweed; forms yellow, brown, or black wiry turfs with spiny or serrated branch margins in the mid-to-high intertidal zone, retaining moisture through dense branching.

Fredericia decewii

Known as loose Ahnfelt’s seaweed; a wiry red alga found near sand on wave-swept beaches. Dichotomously or trichotomously branched, with female thalli forming bulbous cystocarps in the middle of branches.

Gelidium coulteri

Known as jellyweed; a stiff intertidal red alga with coarse, regular branches coming off both sides of the main axis; smaller, thinner, and more densely branched than Gelidium purpurascens.

Gracilariopsis andersonii

Known as red sea spaghetti; an irregularly branched red alga attached to sand-buried rocks in surf zones, serving as a source of agaran (agar).

Halosaccion glandiforme

Known as sea sacs or sea grapes; an intertidal red alga forming fluid-filled sacs that inflate with water at high tide to resist desiccation during low tide via water pumping pores.

Herpochondria borealis

Known as red feather seaweed; a rarely epiphytic red alga that branches exclusively off one side.

Mastocarpus sp.

An intertidal red alga whose female gametophytes have black bumps (papillae) and male gametophytes are smooth and yellow; features an alternate sporophyte phase known as Petrocelis, a thick black free-living crust.

Mazzaella affinis

A mid-intertidal, rubbery red alga with dichotomous branching and smooth thalli without bumps, whose reproductive thalli curl toward rocks like a closing hand.

Mazzaella splendens

Known as splendid iridescent seaweed; features stretchy, rubbery blades with smooth edges that display iridescence when submerged in low intertidal to subtidal habitats.

Melobesia mediocris

Known as seagrass crust; a pink, calcified crustose red alga that grows exclusively as an epiphyte on surfgrass.

Neogastroclonium subarticulatum

Known as sea belly; an intertidal red alga with cylindrical branches covered in short, banded, chambered branchlets that can be iridescent when submerged.

Neorhodomela oregona

Known as Oregon pine; a red alga covered in short stiff branches found exclusively in high intertidal tidepools. Color ranges from black/brown to yellow due to light, temperature, or salinity stress.

Odonthalia floccosa

Known as sea brush; an intertidal red alga whose mature plants develop dense branching with flower-like tufts at branch tips.

Petrocelis stage

The free-living diploid sporophyte ($2N$) phase of Mastocarpus that resembles thick black tar on rocks; releases haploid spores following meiosis to grow into arborescent gametophytes.

Polysiphonia pacifica

A polysiphonous filamentous red alga occurring as tufts or fuzz in intertidal and subtidal habitats; branches multi-directionally, preventing it from lying flat in hand.

Prionitis sternbergii

Known as bleachweed; a tidepool red alga that smells like chlorine or bleach, featuring lance-shaped bladelets branching irregularly or dichotomously off a flattened main axis.

Pyropia sp.

Known as nori; a very thin, nearly translucent red alga that attaches to rocks and other algae.

Sarcodiotheca gaudechaudii

A low intertidal and subtidal red alga with floppy, noodle-like branches featuring pinch points where they extend from the central axis.

Savoiea robusta

A polysiphonous red alga on wave-swept shores (often near or on mussel beds) that branches off only one side and lays flat in hand when delicate filaments are teased apart in water.

Smithora naiadum

A red alga forming thin layered sheets that grows exclusively on seagrass.

Ochrophyta

Phylum containing brown algae and diatoms; characterized by pigments Chl $a$, Chl $c$, and carotenoids; alginate matrix polysaccharides; laminaran storage sugar; secondary endosymbiosis; and heterokont flagella on sperm.

Rhodophyta

Phylum of red algae; characterized by pigments Chl $a$, carotenoids, and phycobilins; matrix polysaccharides agar and carrageenan; floridean starch storage; primary endosymbiosis; and complete absence of flagellated stages or pheromones.

Chlorophyta

Phylum of green algae; characterized by pigments Chl $a$, Chl $b$, and carotenoids without phycobilins; pectin and hemicellulose matrix polysaccharides; starch storage form; primary endosymbiosis; and isokont ($2$) flagella.

Trumpet hyphae

Specialized conducting structures in kelps (Laminariales) analogous to phloem that transport mannitol across the thallus.

Pit plugs

Defining cellular structures found exclusively in the red algal class Florideophyceae (excluding Pyropia, Bangia, and Smithora).