Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Dictyotales

Family Dictyotaceae

Dictyopteris serrata (Areschoug) Hoyt 1920: 460

Plants yellowish-brown, up to about 30 cm tall, sparely dichotomously branched, blades 1.3-3.0 cm wide, midrib conspicuous and lighter coloured, margins entire and with distinctive dentation. Attachment by matted rhizoidal holdfast. Blades ligulate, conspicuous nerves running out from midrib obliquely towards margins.Sporangia in small, inconspicuous sori in lines parallel to veins. Oogonia not seen in our material: reported by Hoyt (1920) to be scattered over both surfaces of blades, mainly near midrib and margins. See also description in Tronchin & De Clerck (2005).

Collections ecology and regional distribution

Recorded from Hluleka to northern Kwazulu-Natal (45-58). Found from the sublittoral fringe to subtidal zone.

World distribution: Also recorded from Mozambique, Mauritius, Kenya, Reunion, Australia and North Carolina, USA (Hoyt 1920; Guiry & Guiry 2012).

Type locality: Port Natal (Durban) (Silva et al. 1996).

Note: there are several specimens from Port Alfred and other areas (BOL) labelled D. serrata but lacking marginal dentition. These appear more similar to D. macrocarpa, but it is clear that these entitities need further study (see note on D. macrocarpa).

 

Dictyopteris serrata, 10m depth, northern KwaZulu-Natal.

Dictyopteris serrata, at 10 m depth, northern KwaZulu-Natal, detail.

 

References Dictyopteris serrata

Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2012. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched January 2012.

Hoyt, W.D. (1920). Marine algae of Beaufort, N.C., and adjacent regions. Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Fisheries 36: 367-556, I-V (index), 47 figs, 9 tables, Plates LXXXIV-CXIX, 3 maps.

Silva, P.C., Basson, P.W. & Moe, R.L. (1996). Catalogue of the benthic marine algae of the Indian Ocean. University of California Publications in Botany 79: 1-1259.

Tronchin, E. M., & De Clerck, O. (2005). Brown Algae. In: De Clerck, O., J.J.Bolton, R. J. Anderson and E. Coppejans, 2005. Guide to the Seaweeds of Kwazulu-Natal. National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Brussels (Scripta Botanica Belgica), pp. 96-129.

 

Cite this record as:

Anderson RJ, Stegenga H, Bolton JJ. 2016. Seaweeds of the South African South Coast.
World Wide Web electronic publication, University of Cape Town, http://southafrseaweeds.uct.ac.za; Accessed on 24 April 2024.