Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Corallinales

Family Corallinaceae

Subfamily Corallinoideae

Jania prolifera (J.V.Lamouroux) J.H.Kim, Guiry & H.-G.Choi 2007: 1317, nom. illeg.

Plants pink, bushy, up to 12 cm tall. Axes complanate, dichotomously branched, often with thin (to 300 µm diameter) branches arising from distal parts. Branch apices rounded and often bleached. Adventitious branching from surfaces of some segments. Lower segments on plants un-lobed, terete to compressed, 0.5-2.0 mm long, 0.5-1.2 mm in diameter; distal segments compressed, variously shaped (arrow-head, bi-lobed, or rectangular), 0.3-3 mm long and 1-3 mm across apices of lobes; lobes simple and project upwards, lobe angle 10-45^o. Genicula inconspicuous. Holdfast of entangled stolons of terete to subterete, un-lobed segments 200-1000 µm in diameter. Conceptacles swollen, borne on upper edges of segments, ostiole opening on upper edge.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Found in rock pools, the sublittoral fringe and sublittoral zone to at least 10 m depth. Recorded from Stilbaai through KwaZulu-Natal (26-58) into Mozambique.

World distribution: Also reported from Madagascar and Australia (Silva et al. 1996).

Type locality: Recorded as “Indes Orientales” - probably Madagascar, according to Papenfuss (1952).

Note: A single specimen morphologically identified as Cheilosporum proliferum (Jania prolifera) formed a clade (CO1 barcoding) distinct from the other Cheilosporum /Jania species in South Africa (Kogame et al. 2017).

 

Jania prolifera, herbarium specimen collected from 5-10 m depth, Stilbaai.

Jania prolifera, detail of Stilbaai specimen showing adventitious branches.

Jania prolifera, with profuse adventitious branches.

 

References Jania prolifera

Kim, J. H., Guiry M. D., Oak, J. H., Choi, D. S., Hosung Chung, S-H. K., Choi, H-G., 2007. Phylogenetic relationships within the tribe Janieae (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) based on molecular and morphological data: A reappraisal of Jania. Journal of Phycology 43: 1310-1319.

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

Papenfuss, G.F. (1952). Notes on South African marine algae. III. Journal of South African Botany 17: 167-188.

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 18 November 2024.