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54 | Filaments

Pacific Seaweeds

Class Ulvophyceae Order Ulotrichales Family Ulotrichaceae

Number of Species

Urospora (Greek=tailed spore, named after a microscopic stage in the life cycle) is represented locally by four species: U. wormskioldii, U. penicilli-formis, U. neglecta and U. doliifera.

Description

Urospora is an attached, unbranched filament composed of large bar-rel-shaped cells, visible to the naked eye (but a magnifying glass helps). The filaments may reach 30 cm (12 in) in length but are usually less than 10 cm (4 in) long.

Locally, Louis Hanic (professor emeritus, University of Prince Edward Island) was able to link ‘Codiolum’, a microscopic bowling pin–shaped unicellular green alga that lives inside fleshy red algae, to the life cycle of Urospora (see Unicellular Forms, p. 70). Previously, ‘Codiolum’ was classified in a distant and distinct group of green algae. This discovery was the culmination of four years of graduate research (University of British Columbia, 1965) by a former antique furniture restorer from Secovce, Czechoslovakia.

Habitat & Distribution

Urospora grows on rock and wood in the mid- to high intertidal region from Alaska to southern California. Its discovery would enrich collectors’ life lists.

Urospora penicilliformis. At right is detail of cell shape.