Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Gigartinales

Family Sarcodiaceae

Sarcodia dentata (Suhr) R. E. Norris 1987: 152-154, figs 1-8

Plants with a small discoid holdfast and a dark red, cartilaginous, upright thallus of strap-like, pseudodichotomously branched blades, often with irregularly dentate margins and sometimes with marginal proliferations towards apices. Thalli up to 40 (-45) cm tall, blades usually a few cm wide, and about 1 mm thick. Growth multiaxial; medulla filamentous, interspersed with denser stellate cells, towards exterior rapidly changing to large-celled pseudoparenchymatous cortex; outer cortex of small cells in anticlinal rows. Tetrasporangial plants smooth, tetrasporangia scattered in outer cortex, zonately divided, about 50 x 22 µm. Female plants covered with conspicuous, protuberant cystocarps which may be elevated on stalks. Male plants smooth, with light, slightly raised areas of spermatangial sori.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

A subtidal species, found from just west of Agulhas (Die Walle) to southern KZN (Palm Beach) (18 -48). There is, however, one specimen from Swartklip, False Bay, in the Pocock collection (GRA).

World distribution: Australia and NZ (Papenfuss 1964), Mauritius, Indonesia (Silva et al. 1996).

Type locality: Algoa Bay (Silva et al. 1996).

 

Sarcodia dentata, Kenton-on-Sea.

Sarcodia dentata, cystocarpic blades (BOL).

Sarcodia dentata, smooth (male?) blades, Port Alfred (BOL).

Sarcodia dentata, XS showing filamentous medulla, large-celled inner cortex and small-celled outer cortex.

Sarcodia dentata, outer cortex with zonately divided tetrasporangia.

Sarcodia dentata. 1. Habit. 2. Cross section with tetrasporangia. Reproduced from Stegenga et al. (1997).

 

References Sarcodia dentata

Norris, R.E 1987. Reproduction in Sarcodia dentata (Suhr) comb.nov. (Gigartinales, Rhodophyceae), with comments on the Sarcodiaceae. British Phycological Journal 22: 147-155.

Papenfuss, G.F. 1964. Catalogue and bibliography of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic benthic marine algae. In: Bibliography of the Antarctic Seas. (Lee, M.O. Eds) Vol.1, pp. 1-76. Washington D.C.: American Geophysical Union.

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. & 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 26 April 2024.