Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Gigartinales

Family Gymnophloeaceae

Schizymenia apoda (J. Agardh) J. Agardh 1851: 175

Thallus dull red, flaccid and slippery. Blades foliose, simple, up to 40 cm long, broadly lanceolate, surface slightly rugose, often with marginal proliferations or lacerated at distal end. Blades up to 600 µm thick; medulla of densely interwoven filaments; cortex of anticlinal bundles of filaments interspersed with abundant gland cells up to 70 µm long and 20 µm wide; surface cortical cells 3-6 µm in diameter. Carposporophytes immersed in thallus, with ostiole; tetrasporangia unknown.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

A subtidal species, common on the west coast but found as far east as the Kei Mouth area (1-43).

World distribution: Also known from Tristan da Cunha (as S. obovata), St. Paul Island, Namibia, Somalia (Silva et al. 1996).

Type locality: Table Bay, Western Cape, South Africa (Silva et al. 1996).

Note: Stegenga et al. (1997) point out that this species (as S. obovata) may have a crustose tetrasporophyte, as is suggested for S. dubyi (Chauvin ex Duby) J. Agardh (Ardré 1980).

 

Schizymenia apoda, De Hoop.

Schizymenia apoda, xs through cortex and outer medulla.

Schizymenia apoda. 1. Habit. 2-3. Cross sections (note darker gland cells). 4. Carposporophyte in cross section of thallus. Reproduced from Stegenga et al. (1997)(as S. obovata).

 

References Schizymenia

Agardh, J. 1851. Species genera et ordines Floridearum 2(1). Lund 1-351.

Ardré, F. 1980. Observations sur le cycle de développement du Schizymenia dubyi (Rhodophycee, Gigartinales) en culture, et remarques sur certains genres de Némastomatacées. Cryptogamie: Algologie, 1 (2): 111-140. 

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.

 

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 27 April 2024.