The Characeae of Fiji 1 
R. D. Wood 2 
In June and July, 1961, the writer made 
a concentrated search for Characeae in Fiji. 
Whereas these plants had previously been 
known only from outlying islands of Ovalau and 
Macuata-i-wai, they were found to be fairly 
common on the main islands as well and to in- 
clude five species. The present systematic treat- 
ment is based upon the writer’s collections and 
upon the few specimens available from other 
herbaria. 
Earlier published records of Characeae report 
only two species from three collections. The first- 
known collection was made by the U. S. Explor- 
ing Expedition under Wilkes ( 1845:230 ff.) on 
Muthuate Island ( = Macuata-i-wai ) , and it was 
described as Nitella muthnatae by T. F. Allen 
(1887:211). Later collections by Naumann in 
1875 and Weber in 1882, both on Ovalau Is., 
were reported by Nordstedt (1888^:188) as 
Char a australis var. vieillardi f. vitiensis. These 
taxa are treated here as Nitella pseudoflabel- 
lata and Char a corallina (dioecious strain), re- 
spectively. 
The Fiji Islands straddle the International 
Date Line (180° long.) at about 17° 30' S and 
lie approximately 1,300 miles south of the equa- 
tor. They are one of a series of archipelagoes 
which lie in a stepwise chain extending eastward 
from Australia at intervals of approximately 800 
miles. Samoa lies to the east and New Caledonia 
lies to the west. The geology and weather have 
been described by Freeman (1951) and Derrick 
( 1957 ) . Fiji includes some 300 separate islands, 
but the major portion (6,180 sq miles) of the 
total land surface (7,055 sq miles) consists of 
the two main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua 
Levu. The larger islands are of the continental 
type, and are generally mountainous. Lying as 
1 Supported in part by a Fulbright Research Scholar 
award and a grant from the National Science Foun- 
dation, and in part by the University of Rhode Island. 
Manuscript received June 1, 1963. 
2 Department of Botany, University of Rhode Island, 
Kingston, R. I. 
they do in the southeast trade winds, the islands 
receive regular precipitation (ca. 120 inches/ 
year at Suva) on the eastward, or windward, side 
but are fairly dry on the leeward side in the rain 
shadow of the mountains. On the dry, or lee, 
sides rainfall (40-60 inches/year) is largely re- 
stricted to the five wet months of December 
through April. 
Available aquatic habitats are numerous and 
include rugged mountain streams, meander- 
ing rivers, waterfall pools, coastal lagoons and 
marshes, a high mountain lake (Tavenui), and 
man-made habitats including rice fields, canals, 
ditches, lily pools, and taro patches. 
The Characeae, instead of being rare as seemed 
indicated by the sparse previous collections, oc- 
cur widely throughout the islands visited by the 
writer. In fact, they were found in 19% of the 
habitats visited. They seemed to be especially 
frequent in the drier parts of the islands. The 
most frequently inhabited sites were the flooded 
rice fields and pools in fields or open woods. 
Such habitats supported Characeae in more than 
50% of the cases. Somewhat less frequently oc- 
cupied sites were lily ponds, canals, and ditch 
ponds. By contrast, Characeae were very rarely 
found in rivers or small streams, natural marshes 
or taro patches. 
It was surprising to find three species of 
Nitella abundant beneath a dense cover of water 
lilies (pools on the plain below the Adi Cakobou 
School near Sawani), almost invariably absent 
from the coastal marshes with the large fern 
Acrostichum aureum L., and totally absent from 
the mountain lake. A. aureum, according to Mer- 
rill (1945:52), grows in areas occasionally swept 
by sea water; the salinity doubtless excludes the 
Characeae. The one lake. Crater Lake on Tave- 
nui, was found by Koroiveibau in 1961 to have 
deeply stained water and to be largely covered 
with a [sedge ?] mat. Characeae were also ab- 
sent from roadside ditches, frequently a fertile 
habitat in Australia. 
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