132 The Essex Naturalist
8a Chara globularis Thuill, var. globularis (=C. fragilis)
This taxon is quite common and widely distributed in Essex ponds and can withstand
quite high levels of nutrient enrichment. The form most frequently encountered
having small oval spine cells but no projecting spines, and usually two circlets of tiny
globular stipulodes. It is usually a neat, C. vulgata-sized plant that can be very
attractive when festooned with green oogonia and orange antheridia. It is separated
from var. virgata, rather empirically, on whether or not its primary and secondary
cortical rows are equally developed, the latter variety having more prominant
primary rows. Other characters are variable, but var. globularis usually has internodes
longer than the branchlets, whereas virgata has them more or less equal, and is a
smaller, more delicate plant of waters with a low nutient status.
TQ(51)38 ???????? 18 Walthamstow, ponds, 1923. Paul W. Richards.
London Naturalist. A Handlist of Plants of the
London Area. Part vii. p.333. 1957.
???????? 18 Leytonstone, muddy pool, 16 August 1958. Coll: &
det: Bruce Ing.
???????? 18 Leyton Marshes, silted-up crater pond. 20 September.
1957. Coll: & det: Bruce Ing.
TQ(51)48 ???????? 18 Epping Forest, coll: Eyre de Crespigny, 1883.
Comment: Henry & James Groves: "approaching var.
capillacea" Botanical Exchange Club Report for
1883. p.98. 1885.
40,87 18 Wanstead Park, (as var. capillacea (Thuill.) Zanev.),
in lake, 1964. Coll: & det: Eric Saunders. Flora of
Essex p.45. 1974.
TQ(51)49 ???????? 18 Loughton, in a pool, 7 June 1882, Henry Groves.
Natural History Museum Herbarium (BM). Atlas
Specimen No:824.
TL(52)50 564,047 19 Shelley, large pond on Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer estate,
huge matted rafts covering much of the floor of the
pond, clearly monoecious, spine cells and stipules
very rudimentary. 5 July 1997. Coll: & det:
K.J.Adams et EFC
TL(52)50 5858,0368 18 High Ongar, small pond, one of two excavated in
1985 to replace ponds destroyed by widening of the
A414. Steep-sided, raw boulder clay, scattered
patches in deep water, oogonia present, conforming
to the old var. capillacea.With Lagarosiphon majus and
Callitriche stagnalis.
23 Nov. 1986. Coll: & det: K.J.Adams.
TL(52)51 54,19 19 Hatfield Forest, in the lake, with C. hispida and C.
vulgaris, 10 Oct. 1890. W.Crouch. Essex Naturalist.
4. p.223. 1890.