TOLYPELLA NORMANIANA NORDSTEDT, A LITTLE-KNOWN CHAROPHYTE FROM NORTHERN NORWAY

Tolypella normaniana is a charophyte endemic to Northern Norway. It is only known from a few localities in Nordland county, but is presumed to be more widespread in the area as there are many potential localiti es. In this paper specimens from three localities in Nordland are trea ted. The different populations are described separately, as the local variation is considerably. The alga is specially well adapted to live on the tidal flats in estuaries in the area. On these foreshore flats the competition from other plants is minimal. One important chemical f actor in this environment is salt content, which vary considerably dur ing the year. In a simple growth experiment the alga did not change ph enotypical from how it was found in nature. This was in contrast to Ch ara aspera, which in the same experiment changed phenotypical from dwa rf to ''normal''. The belonging of this species to the section Obtusif olia of Tolypella is discussed, and the species has been compared to o ther ''extreme'' taxa in the section. A possible migration route for t he taxon is mentioned