Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Ectocarpales

 

Family Ectocarpaceae

Ectocarpus Lyngbye

Plants comprising uniseriate branched filaments; branching generally profuse; each cell containing one or more ribbon-shaped, parietal plastids. Growth diffuse, intercalary. Plurilocular sporangia terminal or pedicellate on branches, scattered; unilocular sporangia rarely seen, ovoid to sub-spherical. A widely-distributed genus with 417 described species, of which 71 are accepted currently (Guiry & Guiry 2011). Two species are definitely recorded on the south coast. A doubtful third record (E. rallsiae) comes from Hluleka (Bolton & Stegenga 1987), but is not described here as no material can be found and the record cannot be confirmed.

Key to species

1. Sporangia in adaxial series on proximal parts of thallus	E. fasciculatus
2. Sporangia scattered on thallus	E. siliculosus

References Ectocarpus

Bolton. J. J. & H. Stegenga (1987). The marine algae of Hluleka (Transkei) and the warm temperate/sub-tropical transition on the east coast of southern Africa. Helgoländer Meeresuntersuchungen 41: 165-183.

Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2011. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched October 2011

 

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.