Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Bryopsidales

Family Codiaceae

Codium duthieae P.C. Silva 1956: 275-277.

Thallus dark green, erect, up to 30 (-60) cm tall, dichotomously branched up to 10 times or more, branches often flattened at dichotomies, otherwise terete. Dichotomies up to 40 m wide, branches 5-10 (-14) mm in diameter. Utricles 800-1800 µum long and may vary in diameter from about 180-500 (-720) µm , apices broadly rounded or subtruncate. Hairs or hair scars occasional but may be numerous, in zone short distance below apices of utricles. Gametangia lanceolate-ovoid, 270-430 (-500) µm long, several per utricle, each on pedicel, in zone near middle of utricle.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Rock pools , lower eulittoral to shallow sublittoral. Found along the whole South African coast (Coppejans et al. 2005).

World distribution

Oman, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa: Namibia, Kenya, Mozambique (Guiry in Guiry & Guiry 2014).

Type locality

Strandfontein, False Bay, South Africa (Silva et al. 1996).

Note: the correct spelling of the name of this species is C. duthieae.

 

Codium duthieae, habit. Note widened dichotomies. Thallus partly covered with small red epiphytes.

 Codium duthieae, utricles

 Codium duthieae, gametangium

 Codium duthieae, subtruncate utricles with gametangia near mid-point

 

References

Coppejans, E., Leliaert, F., Verbruggen, H. 2005. Green 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 40-93.

Guiry, W. in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2014. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 02 July 2014.

Silva, P.C. (1959). The genus Codium (Chlorophyta) in South Africa. Journal of South African Botany 25: 101-165, 22 figs, Plates II-XVI.

Silva, P.C. & Womersley, H.B.S. (1956). The genus Codium (Chlorophyta) in southern Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 4: 261-289, 16 figs, 3 plates.

 

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 19 December 2024.