My part in the taxonomic survey of the algal flora of Iowa began in the fall of 1924. It may be of interest at this time to summarize briefly the work done on the algae of Iowa, including my unpublished notes

Prescott, G. W.

English

University of Northern Iowa

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science Volume 34 Annual Issue Article 25 1927 A Brief Summary of Work on Iowa Algae G. W. Prescott State University of Iowa Copyright ©1927 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias Recommended Citation Prescott, G. W. (1927) "A Brief Summary of Work on Iowa Algae," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 34(1), 111-113. Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol34/iss1/25 This Research is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uni.edu. A BRIEF SUMMARY OF WORK ON IOWA ALGAE G. w. PRJ<:SCOTT My part in the taxonomic survey of the algal flora of Iowa began in the fall of 1924. It may be of interest at this time to summarize briefly the work done on the algae of Iowa, including my unpub-lished notes. The first contribution to a knowledge of Iowa algae was made in 1880 by Dr. Hobby, who published a list of 74 species in the Proceedings of the Iowa Academy for that year. These species were collected from the vicinity of Iowa City. Between 1880 and 1907, a number of short taxonomic lists and notes appeared by Arthur, Bessey, Shimek, Fink, Meyers, Ander-son, Pammel, and Buchanan. All but one of these reports were summarized by R. E. Buchanan and published, together with addi-tions from his own collections, in the Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science for 1907. This paper is in the form of a taxonomic key to the then-known species of algae in Iowa and also includes some valuable distribution data. A very few species are reported from Iowa by Wolle in his "Freshwater Algae of the United States," published in 1887. An additional report which might have been included in Buchan-an's summary, is a paper by Professor J. P. Anderson, dealing with Decatur County algae, published in the Iowa Naturalist for 1905. This paper, together with the report of Buchanan, placed the number of known Iowa algae at something over 200 species in 1907. In his work of that year, Buchanan mentioned the fact that little had been done on the algal flora of the state. This same remark might truthfully have been made at any time during the succeeding twenty years. Between 1907 and 1926 no reports seem to have been made on the algae of Iowa except that Collins reports a few species from Iowa in his "Green Algae of North America,'' published in 1909. This situation is in marked contrast to the activities on this group in neighboring states during these two decades. Such workers as Smith in \Visconsin, Tilden in Minne-sota, Anderson and \Valker in Nebraska, ::\foore, Karrer and Hay-den in Missouri, Kofoid in Illinois, Tiffany and Transeau in Ohio, 111 1Prescott: A Brief Summary of Work on Iowa AlgaePublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1927112 IO'vVA ACADEl\IY OF SCIEKCE Michigan and Illinois. together with the collaborators of these alcrolon-ists have made sweepinc· contributions to a knowledge of b b ' u <.. the algal flora in the middle west. Doctor R. B. \Vylie of this department is largely responsible for the recent and highly scientific explorations into this group of plants in Iowa and the subsequent publications. As director of the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory at Okoboji, he assisted in providing for two surveys of the very rich algal flora of the lake region in Dick-inson County. These two surveys were carried on in 1923 by Dr. L. I-I. Tiffany of Ohio and in 1922 by Dr. G. M. Smith, then of \Visconsin and now Professor of Botany in Stanford Cniversity. The collections of these two algologists. together with 800 col-lections made by Dr. \Vylie himself, which were included in the Tiffany report, have resulted in a long list of algae for Iowa. including several new species. The reports of these surveys were both published in 1926 in the Transactions of the American l\licro-scopical Society. Doctor Tiffany's work was directed tmvard the filamentous forms with particular reference to the Oedogoniaceae. In all, his report included 202 species and varieties. Of these 159 were new to the state of Iowa, and one, Ocdor;o11i11m w:;lici, was new to sCJence. It is a striking coincidence that Smith reported exactly the same number of species and varieties of plankton forms that Tiffany reported for the filamentous forms. In Smith's list of 202 forms. 186 were new to Iowa and one genus, Glocoacti11ium, and 25 spe-cies and varieties were new to science. The work that I began in 1924 on Iowa algae was encouraged by Dr. \Vylie, and since then he and other members of this depart-ment have assisted me in obtaining collections. I am grate±ul, also to Professor Conard of Grinnell, Professor Jacques of Iowa \ Ves-leyan. and Professor Clark of the State Teachers' College, for their generosity in furnishing me with algal collections from vari-ous parts of the state. My own collections and those turned over to me for identification have contributed something over 750 species ancl varieties of algae to elate. -:\Iany collections in my pos-session have not yet been examined, so that by the time this report is published, the number of my identifications will probably be considerably increased. Of these 750 forms, I have 341 listed which have not been previously reported from Iowa. One hunclrecl and sixty-eight additional species might be reported for the first time from Iowa except that these were covered by the Smith ancl 2Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 34 [1927], No. 1, Art. 25https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol34/iss1/25WORK ON IOWA ALGAE 113 Tiffany papers in 1926. In addition there are ten or more species which are apparently new to science, and it is hoped that a report can be published on these new forms in the near future. The total number of known algae for Iowa is now about 1000 species and varieties. This list is being lengthened by additions to both the blue-green and the green algal groups but in particular to the Desmidiaceae which have been relatively neglected in Iowa. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF IOWA ALGAE FROM 1880-1926 (The citations marked with the asterix have not been reviewed.) 1. HonnY, C .. M. List of Iowa Algae in Vicinity of Iowa City. Appendix. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 1 :28. 1880. 2. ARTHUR, J. C. History of Floyd County. 1882. (*) 3. BESSEY, C. E. A Note on the Abundance of Algae about Ames. Amer-ican Naturalist. 1882. 4. Preliminary List of Zygophytes, Protophytes, Oophytes and Carophytes of the Ames Flora. Bull. Ia. Ag. College, issued by De-partment of Botany. Nov., 1884. 134-138. 5. \!VOLLE, F. Freshwater Algae of the United States. Mentions a few species which occur in Iowa. 1887. 6. SHIMEK, B. Notes on the Aquatic Flora of Northern IO\rn. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 4 :77-81. 1896. 7. MYERS, P. C. Preliminary Report on the Diatoms of Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 6 :47-52. 1899. 8. ----Report on a fossil Diatomaceous Deposit in Muscatine County, Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 6 :52-53. 1899. 9. FINK, B. Notes on Iowa Algae. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 12 :21. 1905. 10. PAMMEL, L. H. AND BUCHANAN, R. E. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 10 :32. 1905. (*) 11. AND.ERSON, J.P. Decatur County Algae. Iowa Nat. 1 :55-58. 12. BUCHANAN, R. E. Notes on the Algae of Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 14 :47-84. 1907. 13. COLLINS, F. S. The Green Algae of North America. Tufb College Studies II. No. 3. 1909. 14. TIFFANY, L. H. Some New Forms of Spirogyra and Oedogonium. Ohio Jour. Sci. 24:180-187. Plates I, II. 15. The Filamentous Algae of Northwestern Iowa With Special Reference to the Oedogoniaceae. Trans. Amer. Mic. Soc. 45, No. 2 :69-132. Plates I-XVI. 1926. 16. SMITH, G. M. The Plankton Algae of the Okoboji Region. Tras. Amer. Mic. Soc. 45, No. 3 :156-233. Plates I-XX. 1926. STATB UNIVBRSITY oF IowA, IowA CITY, IowA. 3Prescott: A Brief Summary of Work on Iowa AlgaePublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1927

A Brief Summary of Work on Iowa Algae

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A Brief Summary of Work on Iowa Algae

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