THE DISTRIBUTION OF PADINA PAVONICA 1 7 



Luccombe: 



Foslie (1893)}; Morey (1909){. 



Ventnor: 



Telford Jones, A 1726, in Herb. Currie (UCNW). 



Steephill: 



vii.1883, Telford Jones, A1727/8, in Herb. Currie (UCNW); Foslie (1893) J; Morey (1909){. 



St Lawrence: 



ix.1836, Herb. G. W. T. H. Fleming, two specimens, (BM). 



Brook[e] Bay: 



viii.1911, no other data (LIV and LIVU). 



Near Brook: 



ix.1920, 'drifted', Herb. J. Groves (BM). 



Compton Bay: 



ix.1929, Herb. J. Groves (BM). 



Colwell Bay [Warden Point], SZ 324878: 



30.vii.1972, W. D. R. 



Colwell Bay: 



1922, Herb. J. Groves (BM); undated, Herb. J. Groves (BM). 



Isle of Wight general [often as Hampshire (Isle of Wight)]: 



ix.1860, coll. Miss Burnett (BM) [Plate 3B, upper specimen]; Holmes (1900, 1920); Batters 

 (1902); vii.1949, [A.] Bursa & [F. R.], Irvine (E); Herb. Robertson (GLAM). 



The Isle of Wight is the furthest east of the three major long-established south coast foci. 

 Norris (1972, unpublished) suggested that his specimens from Bembridge lagoon, growing near a 

 large sewer outfall, may have been adapted to and stimulated by the effluent; plants grew much 

 more quickly overall than Lyme Regis specimens from clear water, even when both populations 

 were grown in culture medium with 0-5 % effluent content. This stimulation may partly account 

 for the present luxuriance, but is not likely to have been effective for long enough to have been 

 involved in the establishment of early populations. Bembridge area records (unfortunately not 

 always more accurately localised) exist from 1 860 to the present, with emphasis on the last 1 5 years. 

 That emphasis has probably resulted from more workers, rather than from more Padina. The 

 recent records have involved two distinct Bembridge areas. The lagoon area, described by Norris, 

 carries a relatively luxuriant population of Padina which still covers only about a quarter of the 

 area of the large pool retained at low water by the seaward rock ridges (Long Ledge, see later). 

 This area of the pool, unlike the remaining rocky areas, has as its bottom yellow clay (Bembridge 

 Beds). A small part of this, approximately 18 x 9 m, was covered in 1971 by P. pavonica, but only 

 on the slightly raised ridges of more solid mudstone, in depths of about 0-0-4 m at normal low 

 waters of spring tides. Earlier (1962) observations by one of us (J. H. P.) tally with this, although 

 P. pavonica probably then covered a rather smaller area there. Bembridge Forelands area includes 

 Long Ledge, a series of rocky ridges, lying some 25 m offshore at high water level. The long Ledge 

 runs almost parallel to the shoreline, dipping gently to shoreward and toward the north-east; it is 



J Based on a small text by Parkinson, C, c. 1890, The Marine Algae (Seaweeds) of the Isle of Wight. Parkinson 

 apparently lived in Ventnor, where the work was published. Foslie, Batters, Morey, and Holmes had certainly seen 

 a copy of the text. Despite prolonged search, we have been unable to locate the work. 



