Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Corallinales

Family Corallinaceae

Sub-Family Corallinoideae

Arthrocardia palmata (J. Ellis & Solander) J.E. Areschoug in J. Agardh 1852: 549

Plants 2-3 (-6) cm tall, pink, fronds terete sometimes becoming slightly flattened in distal parts, mainly dichotomously branched, branching more frequent in distal parts. Branching mainly dichotomous (two branches arising from the distal end of a segment) but sometimes 3,4 or (very rarely) 5 branches arising together; adventitious branching present, sometimes from all sides of a segment. Basal segments entirely terete, about 1 mm long, 0.5 mm diameter; segments becoming longer distally to about 3 (-6) mm near tips of axes and slightly flattened at their distal ends where branches are borne; terminal segments often terete. Genicula in basal parts visible as dark lines, almost invisible towards tips of axes.

Fertile segments with single axial conceptacle visible as swelling in distal end, between the points where the branches are borne; single terminal ostiole.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Collected from Cape Padrone to Hluleka (38-45), from rock pools and the lower eulittoral.

World distribution: Also recorded from Namibia and Madagascar (Silva et al. 1996).

Type locality: “American Seas” but thought to be South Africa (Guiry & Guiry 2014).

Note: In a DNA barcoding study by Kogame et al. (2017), none of the 63 articulated coralline species collected on the South African coast was clearly identified (morphologically) as A. palmata, but a specimen from Palm Beach in southern KwaZulu-Natal (one of two assigned to a clade of two specimens called Arthrocardia sp. 1) appears very similar to this species. 

 

Arthrocardia palmata.

Arthrocardia palmata, herbarium specimen (BOL).

Arthrocardia palmata, detail of herbarium specimen (BOL).

Arthrocardia palmata, detail of herbarium specimen (BOL) showing branching pattern.

 

References Arthrocardia palmata

Agardh, J. G. 1852. Species genera et ordines Floridearum 2(2) Lund, 337-720.

Guiry M.D. in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2014. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 14 March 2014.

Kogame, K., Uwai, S., Anderson, RJ., Choi, H-G & JJ Bolton. 2017. DNA barcoding of South African geniculate coralline red algae (Corallinales, Rhodophyta). South African Journal of Botany 108: 337-341.

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.

 

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.