Codium

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Codium
Dead man's fingers (Codium fragile) off the Massachusetts coast
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Chlorophyta
Class: Bryopsidophyceae
Order: Bryopsidales
Family: Codiaceae
Genus: Codium
Stackhouse, 1797
Type species
Codium tomentosum
Stackhouse, 1797
Species

See text

Codium is a genus of seaweed in the Chlorophyta of the Order Bryopsidales. There are about 50 species worldwide. [1]

Contents

[edit] Description

The genus has thalli of two forms, either erect or prostrate. The erect plants are dichotomously branched to 40 cm long with branches forming a compact spongy structure, not calcareous. The final branches form a surface layer of close palisade cortex of utricles. The non-erect species form either a prostrate or globular thallus with a velvet-like surface, the final branches forming a close cortex of utricles. [2]

[edit] Distribution

[edit] Ireland

Two of these species are very rare in Ireland. Codium adhaerens has been recorded from a few sites on the west coast and from Tory Island on the north coast in County Donegal. In 1837 it was found in Church Bay in County Antrim, but has not been found there since.

There are other species of "doubtful validity":- Codium amphibium is included in Harvey's Phycologia Britannica Pl.xxxv. and noted as: "spreading in patches of great extent along the edge of the sea, over the surface of a turf-bog which meets the shore at Roundstone Bay" (Ireland).

[edit] Codium world-wide

  • Codium cuneatum S. & G. California (U.S.A.)
  • Codium duthiae Silva Australia, Tasmania and South Africa.
  • Codium extricatum Silva Cape Agulhas to southern Natal.
  • Codium fragile (Suringar) Hariot, Sui song (Chinese)[3] Japan, American Pacific from Alaska to Cape Horn, Australia and New Zealand, British Isles, Norway, Denmark and Netherlands.
  • Codium fragile (Suringar) Hariot subsp. capense Silva South Africa.
  • Codium fragile Nova Scotia (Canada)
  • Codium hubbsii Daws. California (U.S.A.)
  • Codium johnstonei Silva California (U.S.A.)
  • Codium lucasi Setchell Australia, Tasmania.
  • Codium geppiorum Australia and Indo-PacificSouth Africa.
  • Codium spongiosum Australia.
  • Codium setchellii Gardn. Califirnis (U.S.A.)
  • Codium intertextum Collins & Hervey
  • Codium isthmocladum Vickers
  • Codium tayori Silva
  • Codium repens (Crouan) Vickers

[edit] References

  1. ^ C. van den Hoek, D. G. Mann & M. H. Jahns (1995). Algae: An Introduction to Phycology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-30419-9. 
  2. ^ E. M. Burrows (1991). Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 2. Chlorophyta. London: Natural History Museum. ISBN 0-565-00981-8. 
  3. ^ Abbott, Isabella A (1989). Lembi, Carole A.; Waaland, J. Robert. eds. Algae and human affairs. Cambridge University Press, Phycological Society of America. pp. 141. ISBN 9780521321150. 

[edit] General references

[edit] External links

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