Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Ceramiales

Family Wrangeliaceae

Stegengaea capensis (Stegenga) Alongi, Cormaci & G.Furnari 2007: 319

Plants minuscule, forming a cover on the utricles of Codium spp. Plants built up of a system of creeping filaments and many short erect filaments. Creeping filaments consisting of irregular cells, up to 175 µm long and 15-25 µm broad, often with a downward blunt process but without true haptera. Each cell of the prostrate system with one to a few erect axes, these unbranched or with a few laterals in the proximal part. Erect axes up to 400 µm high, ca. 25 µm broad in the proximal part, hardly tapering in the distal part, the cells little longer than broad, the basal cell usually longer.

Polysporangia single on top of short erect axes, ca. 50 X 45 µm, usually producing 16-20 spores. Spermatangia terminal on erect axes, several spermatangium mother cells occurring on the terminal cell in an umbellate construction, each cell with one spermatangium. Female fertile filaments four-celled, sessile on the creeping filament. The subapical cell with only a supporting cell bearing a sterile cell and a four-celled carpogonial filament. Carposporophyte with small gonimolobes and terminal carposporangia ca. 25 X 20 µm.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Found once at Haga Haga, otherwise a West Coast species (1-43). Endophytic in Codium, growing between and on the utricles.

World distribution: South African endemic (Stegenga et al. 1997, as Lomathamnion capensis).

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

Note: formerly known as Lomathamnion capense Stegenga (see Stegenga 1984).

 

Stegengaea capensis, . 1 Microscopic habit, male plant with spermatangial heads. 2 Female plant with numerous procarps. 3-4 Polysporangia. 5 Carposporophyte. Reproduced from Stegenga et al. (1997), as Lomathamnion capense.

Stegengaea capensis, microscopic habit. Stained slide, Haga Haga material.

Stegengaea capensis, polysporangia. Stained slide, Haga Haga material.

Stegengaea capensis, procarps. Stained slide, Haga Haga material.

 

References Stegengaea capensis

Alongi, G., Cormaci, M. & Furnari, G. 2007. Woelkerlingia minuta gen. et sp. nov. from the Mediterranean Sea and a reassessment of the genus Lomathamnion, with a description of two new genera: Hommersandiella gen. nov. and Stegengaea gen. nov. Cryptogamie, Algologie 28: 311-324.

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. 1984. A new species of Lomathamnion (Rhodophyta, Ceramiaceae) from South Africa. South African Journal of Botany 3: 351-355, 3 figs.

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 20 April 2024.