Entocladia codicola Setch. & N.L.Gardner

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Algae distributed from the Herbarium of tfte
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Entoclodia codicola S. and G.
Redondo, California. 1909

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N. L. Gardner. No. 4121 botanical

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2. Entocladia codicola S. and G.

Plate 19, fig. 7

Filaments light green, branching profusely, at maturity forming
a continuous layer in the center of the mass with tapering free ends
around the margin; young cells 3-4/x diam., 1-2.5 times as long,
terminal cells slender and conical; cells in the center of the thallus
5-8ju, diam.; pyrenoids single; reproduction unknown.

Growing in the membrane, at the tips of the utricles of Codium
fragile. Central and southern California.

Setchell and Gardner, Phyc. Cont. I, 1920, p. 293, pi. 24, fig. 7 a, b.

Entocladia codicola seems closely related to Entocladia viridis
Reinke (1879, p. 476, pi. 6, f. 6-9), found growing in the membrane
of Derbesia; but it is a larger plant with the filaments much more
compact in the center, forming, in fact, a pseudo-parenchymatous disk
with free filaments around the margin. The cells are shorter than
those of E. viridis, some being even shorter than the diameter. In
the pseudo-parenchymatous character of the center of the disklike
frond it resembles Epicladia F lust me Reinke (1888, p. 241, nomen
nudum, 1889, p. 31, pi. 24, 1889a, p. 86), but the dimensions given
for that species are greater in general than those in ours. Reproduc-
tive bodies have been observed in the cells of the central portion of
the disk in E. codicola, but the nature of these, their method of escape,
and their subsequent behavior have not been determined. Until more
is known concerning these later phases of the plant, its proper placing
must remain somewhat in doubt. It is here placed provisionally with
Entocladia on account of its endophytic habit of growth, rather than
with Epicladia, which has the habit of growing on the outside of the
host. This habit of growth seems to be the only one by which the
two genera are distinguished, so far as the diagnoses reveal. Little,
however, is known concerning the reproduction in Epicladia, and
until that matter can be cleared up it can have but little claim to
generic distinction. Reinke expressed doubt as to the validity of
the genus when he diagnosed it (1889). Collins (1909) has retained

1920]

Setchell-Gardner : Chlorophyceae

291

both genera, and under Endoderma (Entocladia) has included two
species, viz. E. Pithophorae West and E. polymorphism West, which
are epiphytic, and thus, as he remarks (loc. cit., p. 280), “connects
Endoderma with Epicladia, but the filaments do not unite to form a
definite disk.”

Entocladia codicola seems to be confined to the coast of California
and to the above mentioned host plant, at least examination of con-
siderable material of different species of Codium in different localities,
ranging from Sitka, Alaska, to southern California, has not revealed
its presence elsewhere.

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Entocladia codicola S. and G.

Fig. 7. a, A young thallus, showing the method of branching 'of. the fila-
ments and of their radiation from a center. X 125. b, A mature thallus with
sporangia m the center. X 125.

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Entocladia codicola S. and G.

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A young thallus, showing the method of branching of the
eir radiating from a center. X 125.

A mature thallus with sporangia in the center. X 125.

icola Setchell & Gardner , ap. nov.