Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Nemaliales

Family Scinaiaceae

Nothogenia erinacea (Turner) Parkinson 1983: 609

Thallus foliaceous, yellowish-brown becoming black when dry, up to 35 cm long, rubbery/leathery becoming stiff when dry. Holdfast a small disc or crust; blades irregularly divided and incised and with numerous proliferations from surfaces and margins; blades to 5 cm wide. Internal structure multiaxial; medulla filamentous, cells 1.5-2.0 µm in diameter; cortex of anticlinal filaments ending in cells about 3 µm in diameter. Carposporophytes present as gonimoblasts lining the inner surface of conceptacle-like cavities; spermatangia in conceptacle-like depressions in surface of blade. Tetrasporophytes crustose, multilayered, with cruciately or irregularly-divided tetrasporangia in superficial sori among paraphyses; tetrasporangia 24-30 µm long, 10-17 µm wide.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Epilithic in the mid-lower eulittoral, often associated with sand. Found from Cape Fria in Namibia, along the west coast, to East London. (1-41).

World distribution: Southern African endemic.

Type locality: “Cape of Good Hope” (Silva et al 1996).

Note: The life histories of this species and N. ovalis are described by Anderson and Stegenga (1985). The crustose sporophytes are apparently well-suited to surviving sand burial, so that these species are often associated with sand.

 

Nothogenia erinacea, typically on sand-affected intertidal rocks

Nothogenia erinacea, female gametophyte seen under water.

Nothogenia erinacea. 1. Habit. 2. Section of blade. Reproduced from Stegenga et al. (1997).

 

References Nothogenia erinacea

Anderson, R. J. & H. Stegenga 1985. A crustose tetrasporophyte in the life history of Nothogenia erinacea (Turner) Parkinson (Galaxauraceae, Rhodophyta). Phycologia 24: 111-118.

Parkinson P. G. 1983. The typification and status of the name Chaetangium ((Algae). Taxon 32: 605-610.

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. and 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 18 November 2024.