Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Erythropeltidales

Family Erythrotrichiaceae

Sahlingia subintegra (Rosenvinge) Kornmann 1989: 227, figs1, 6-13

Plants minute, pale red, monostromatic discs with rather smooth margins; up to a few mm in diameter. Marginal cells of disc elongated, often forked, to 25 µm long and about 10 µm wide; inner cells polygonal, about 10 µm diameter; all cells with single central or parietal chloroplast with one pyrenoid. Monosporangia formed by unequal divisions of central cells of thallus.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Epiphytic and epizoic on a variety of algae and animals. Recorded from False Bay to Mkambati area of Transkei (114-47) but probably more widespread and overlooked on account of its size.

World distribution: widespread in temperate and tropical waters; in southern Africa known from Namibia (Guiry & Guiry 2012).

Type locality: Skagerak, Denmark (Silva et al. 1996).

Note: Stegenga et al. (2001) point out that this species can be confused with basal discs of Porphyrostromium boryanum , in which monosporangia can form (in addition to those on their uprights).

 

Sahlingia subintegra, visible as disc on host tissue, centre of figure.

Sahlingia subintegra, side view of disc on host tissue.

Sahlingia subintegra, young disc in isolation, with some of host tissue below.

Sahlingia subintegra, disc growing over part of internode of Ceramium host.

Sahlingia subintegra.  Various stages in development of the thallus, in 4 and 5 producing monospores. (Reproduced from Stegenga et al., 1997; as Erythrocladia subintegra).

 

References Sahlingia

Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2012. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched September 2012.

Kornmann , P. (1989). Sahlingia nov. gen. based on Erythrotrichi subintegra (Erythropeltidales, Rhodophyta). British Phycological Journal 24: 223-228, 13 figs.

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.

Stegenga, H., Engledow, H.R., Bolton, J.J. & Anderson, R.J. (2001). The distribution of the family Erythropeltidaceae (Rhodophyta) along the temperate Southern African coast, with the description of Erythrotrichia platyphylla nov. spec. Nova Hedwigia 73(3-4): 367-379.

 

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 25 April 2024.