Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Ceramiales

Family Delesseriaceae

Acrosorium maculatum (Sonder ex Kützing) Papenfuss 1940a: 224

Plants bright red, up to 5 cm tall, with scattered pale/yellow patches and sometimes areas of iridescence. Fronds very variable in size (from 10-15 mm tall and 2 mm wide to 5 cm tall and 10 mm wide) , narrowly wedge-shaped, linear, irregularly lobed or incised; numerous microscopic veins present; blades monostromatic except for microscopic veins. Tetrasporangia in sori, one per apical thallus lobe; cystocarps scattered in blades, projecting from both sides but with single ostiole.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Recorded from Cape Peninsula to northern Kwazulu-Natal (17-58). Epilithic or commonly epiphytic; frequent in rock pools, lower eulittoral and sublittoral (to at least 12 m).

World distribution: Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and also recorded from Sri Lanka (Silva et al. 1996).

Type locality: Cape of Good Hope, South Africa (Silva et al. 1996).

Note: This species differs little from A. acrospermum. Specimens of A. maculatum from the south coast appear to be slightly smaller than the largest specimens from the west coast, which may grow to 10 cm.

 

Acrosorium maculatum growing on axes of Phloiocaulon suhrii, De Hoop.

Acrosorium maculatum with pale yellowish spots and tetrasporic sori.

Acrosorium maculatum highly magnified view of thallus surface showing veins and yellow areas.

Acrosorium maculatum. 1. Habit, tetrasporangial. 2. Apical region. 3. Surface view of cell arrangement. 4. Cystocarp in cross section. 5. Tetrasporangial sorus in crosss section. Reproduced from Stegenga et al. (1997).

 

References Acrosorium maculatum

Papenfuss GF 1940a: Notes on South African marine algae I. Botaniska Notiser 1940: 200-226, 16 figs.

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.

Stegenga, H., Bolton, J.J. & R. J. Anderson. 1997. Seaweeds of the South African west coast. Contributions from the Bolus Herbarium 18: 655 pp.

 

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 April 2024.