Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Ceramiales

Family Rhodomelaceae

Pachychaeta brachyarthra (Kützing) Trevisan 1875: 384, footnote

Plants pinkish-red to dark red, comprising prostrate axes bearing erect axes up to 20 cm long and about 1 mm in diameter, often forming loose, somewhat tangled stringy thalli. Axes cylindrical, uncorticated, radially organized, with 6-11 pericentral cells, irregularly and sparsely branched, with unbranched apices. Cells in surface view characteristically elongated hexagonal. Reproductive structures borne on bushy branchlets. Tetrasporangia two per segment, in spiral rows in stichidium-like structures cut off from ends of fertile branches, stichidia branched or unbranched. Antheridial stands compound with cylindrical lobes and sterile tips. Cystocarps globose, one per fertile branchlet, with small spines at tips.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Recorded from Cape Agulhas along the entire south coast through to northern Kwazulu-Natal (22-58).Found in the lower eulittoral and shallow sublittoral, often in slightly protected areas, forming tangled masses among other seaweeds on the substratum.

Worldwide distribution: South African endemic.

Type locality: "Cap" (probably Cape Agulhas, Cape Province, South Africa) (Silva et al. 1996).

 

Pachychaeta brachyarthra, entangled in a Plocamium sp., Struis Bay.

Pachychaeta brachyarthra, thallus tips.

Pachychaeta brachyarthra, showing elongated hexagonal cortical cells.

Pachychaeta brachyarthra, stichidium-like tetrasporangial branchlets.

 

References Pachychaeta brachyarthra

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.

Trevisan, V.B.A. 1875. Sulla fruttificazione delle Ceramiacee. Rendiconti del Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere Ser. 2, 8: 377-384.

 

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 24 April 2024.