Chara socotrensis NORDSTEDT

Langangen, Anders, 2015, Some Finds Of Charophytes From East-Africa (Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya And Somalia), Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae Series B 71 (3 - 4), pp. 239-248 : 240-241

Chara socotrensis NORDSTEDT in KÜHN

Syn. Chara socotrensis f. socotrensis (NORDSTEDT in KÜHN) R.D. WOOD

The species has been found in one locality in Somalia ( Text-fig. 3 ).

Description of specimens examined:

Plants are monoecious, 2–3 cm high (full length not attained as the plants were partly broken) and strongly encrusted. The axis is c. 500 µm in diameter and the internodes are much shorter than the branchlets (only upper part of plants). Stem and branchlets are ecorticated and spine cells are missing. Stipulodes are well developed, both haplo- and diplostephanous, two cells per branchlet (bistipulate) in the upper tier, pointing upwards, up to 400–500 µm long. In diplostephanous specimens the lower tier cells are short (50 µm) to papillous.

Branchlets are 10 in a whorl and up to 17 mm long, 2–5x the length of internodes, segments 2, basal segment short (250 µm), terminal segment 2–4 celled, constricted.

End cells are mucronate ( Text-fig. 2 ), up to 250 µm long. Bract-cells are short to papillous. Bracteoles 2, up to as long as the oogonium. Gametangia are conjoined at branchlet nodes, unripe. The oogonia are up to 750 µm long (including coronula). The coronula is divergent. The antheridia are 300 µm in diameter.

The specimens described here clearly fit the original description of Chara socotrensis . As noted by Nordstedt in Kuhn (1883), the stipulodes were partly diplostephanous, which he found very interesting. This phenomen was not seen by Wood and Imahori (1965) in their study of the type material. In icon 119 in Wood and Imahori (1964). the stipulodes are haplostephanous, unistipulate and alternate. Allen (1888) used one of Nordstedt’s drawings to illustrate a set of three stipulodes (tristipulate) ( Allen 1888: fig. 28, p. 22), which in my opinion is two tiers. Chara socotrensis can therefore be refered to the diplostephanous species of Chara . In this group it will be the only totally ecorticated species.

D i s t r i b u t i o n: Chara socotrensis is presently known from Socotra ( Yemen) and Berbera ( Somalia, this article) and Bolivia (South America) ( Guerlesquin 1981).

E c o l o g y: On the label is written – Water-weed. Floating in swamps. The locality is situated at c. 1000 m. altitude, and must be lime-rich as the alga is strongly encrusted. In Bolivia it is found in brackish water .

The examined herbarium specimen is (from EA):

Figures

Text-fig. 3. Distribution of examined species.

Text-fig. 2. Chara socotrensis. Branchlet segments with mucronate end cells.