Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Rhodymeniales

Family Rhodymeniaceae

Rhodymenia Greville

Plants foliaceous, with small to prominent stipe, discoid or stoloniferous holdfast and flat, complanate blades with or without surface proliferations. Structure multiaxial, with small-celled cortex and larger-celled medulla. Reproductive structures scattered on blades, concentrated on blade apices, or restricted to surface proliferations. Tetrasporangia immersed in outer cortex, cruciately divided. Cystocarps projecting from surface, hemispherical and ostiolate.

Note that Womersley (1996) includes Epymenia in Rhodymenia, pointing out that the character formerly separating the genera (reproductive structures in surface leaflets in the former and in the blade surfaces in the latter) does not always hold.

 

Key to species of Rhodymenia

1a Blades irregularly branched, often cuneate to fan-shaped, arising from rhizomatous holdfast system	Rhodymenia holmesii
1b Blades narrowly linear, dichotomously branched, with slender stipe arising from small discoid holdfast	2
2a. Reproductive structures borne on small leaflets/rosettes arising from surfaces of	Rhodymenia capensis
2b Reproductive structures borne directly on the blades	Rhodymenia natalensis

 

References Rhodymenia

Womersley, H.B.S. 1996. The marine benthic flora of southern Australia - Part IIIB - Gracilariales, Rhodymeniales, Corallinales and Bonnemaisoniales. Vol. 5 pp. 1-392, 160 figs. Canberra & Adelaide: Australian Biological Resources Study & the State Herbarium of South Australia.

 

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.