Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Ceramiales

Family Dasyaceae

Dasya echinata Stegenga, Bolton & Anderson 1997: 498

Plants erect, with irregularly branched main axis, up to 10 cm tall. Axes clothed with fairly stiff pseudolaterals, forming bottlebrush-like apices on the plant, older parts of the axes denuded. Main axis with 5 pericentral cells and thick cortication; rhizoidal filaments penetrating between central and pericentral cells; older axes up to 1 mm in diameter. Pseudolaterals monosiphonous, dichotomously branched every second or third segment, angle of dichotomies about 90^o. Ultimate ramuli 4-8 cells long, straight, almost spine-like. Pseudolaterals proximally ca. 90 µm in diameter, tapering to acute, the cells about as long as broad. Tetrasporangial stichidia conical to cylindrical, forming one arm of a dichotomy of a pseudolateral. Stichidia ca. 600 x 150 µm, the segments with five or six pericentral cells and tetrasporangia. Sporangia globose, ca. 45 µm in diameter, tetrahedrally divided. Tetrasporiferous pericentral cells with three cover cells in a horizontal row. Sexual reproductive structures unknown.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Recorded from Strandfontein, False Bay to Waterloo Bay (18-40). Found in the sublittoral fringe.

World distribution: South African endemic.

Type locality: Brandfontein, just west of Cape Agulhas (Stegenga et al. 1997).

 

Dasya echinata, type specimen (BOL), collected just west of Cape Agulhas.

Dasya echinata, detail of type specimen (BOL). Stained slide material.

Dasya echinata, tetrasporangial stichidia.

Dasya echinata. 1. Habit. 2. Pseudolateral. 3. Cross section of main axis. 4. Tetrasporangial stichidium. Reproduced from Stegenga et al. (1997).

 

References Dasya echinata

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 26 April 2024.