Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Colaconematales

Family Colaconemataceae

Colaconema seriatum (Børgesen) Stegenga 1985: 323, fig. 24 ('seriata')

Plants bushy, up to 800 µm tall, comprising a pseudoparenchymatous disc of multicellular densely interwoven filaments up to a few hundred µm in diameter, bearing numerous erect filaments. Cells of basal disc 4-5 µm in diameter, slightly longer than broad. Erect filaments frequently branched, laterals in alternate, irregular or secund series. Main filaments 10-12 µm in diameter, tapering to 7 µm near apices; laterals up to 7 µm in diameter. Cells 1.5-2.5 times as long as broad; chloroplast parietal with one pyrenoid. Monosporangia in secund series on the adaxial faces of primary and secondary laterals, sessile or pedicellate, 10(-12) x 6 (-8) µm. No other reproductive structures observed.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Recorded from Hluleka to northern KwaZulu-Natal (45-58), on larger algae.

World distribution: worldwide on tropical and warm temperate coast as C. seriatum (but see note below).

Type locality: Virgin Islands (Silva et al. 1996).

Note: C. seriatum is considered by some authors to be a synonym of C. hypneae. However, with some doubt we follow Stegenga (1985) in retaining the former name for South African material because it is never endophytic, despite often growing on a loose substratum (e.g. Codium platylobium) that would be conducive to an endophytic habit typical of C. hypneae in such circumstances. (See note in Stegenga 1985; as Colaconema seriata).

 

Colaconema seriatum. Habit of erect filaments with monosporangia (re-drawn from Stegenga 1985, Fig 24).

Colaconema seriatum. Detail showing chloroplast structure (both plants from type locality). Re-drawn from Stegenga 1985, Fig 24.

 

References Colaconema seriatum

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. (1985). The marine Acrochaetiaceae (Rhodophyta) of southern Africa. South African Journal of Botany 51: 291-330, 25 figs, 1 table.

 

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 18 November 2024.