Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Halymeniales

Family Halymeniaceae

Prionitis nodifera (Hering) Barton 1896: 459

Plants erect, up to 15 cm tall, comprising a clump of red, cartilaginous, tough, irregularly and sparsely branched, knobbly uprights arising from a crustose holdfast. Uprights sparsely and irregularly branched, terete basally becoming compressed, widening from a few mm at the base to ca 6 mm distally. Filamentous medulla surrounded by inner cortex of stellate cells and outer cortex of small, pigmented cells. Reproductive structures developing in the knobbly proliferations towards the ends of the thalli.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Recorded from Three Sisters (10 km east of Port Alfred) to northern Kwazulu-Natal (39-58). Found on wave-exposed shores, epilithic or rarely epiphytic in the lower eulittoral and shallow sublittoral zones.

World distribution: South African endemic.

Type locality: Durban, Kwazulu-Natal (De Clerck et al. 2005).

 

Prionitis nodifera, Mkambati, northern Transkei (BOL). Scale values in cm.

Prionitis nodfera, Mkambati, northern Transkei (BOL), single specimen. Scale values in cm.

 

References Prionitis nodifera

Barton, E. S. 1896. Cape Algae. Journal of Botany, London, 34: 193-198, 458-461, 5 figs.

De Clerck, O., J.J.Bolton, R. J. Anderson and E. Coppejans, 2005. Guide to the Seaweeds of Kwazulu-Natal. National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Brussels (Scripta Botanica Belgica), 294 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.