Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Ceramiales

Family Rhodomelaceae

Streblocladia corymbifera (C.Agardh) Kylin 1938: 20-21

Plants red, erect, with single basal holdfast or limited prostrate part. Main axis up to 10 cm tall and 350 µm in diameter. Rhizoids when present developing from pericentral cells. Segments with 10-14 pericentral cells, about as long as broad or slightly shorter; older segments with some (rather insignificant) secondary cortication. Apex overtopped by incurved pseudolaterals. Tetrasporangia in dense fascicles of repeatedly branched filaments, irregularly aligned in branchlets, 70 µm in diameter, with two long and one short cover cell. Spermatangial heads forming one arm of a forked trichoblast; arranged adaxially on ultimate branchlets in a double row; conical, ca. 300 x 80 µm. Cystocarps globose to ovate, ca. 200 µm in diameter (Note that Stegenga et al. 1997 state that these dimensions are for cystocarps that “may be immature”.)

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Recorded from the west coast to Goukamma (1-29), in tidal pools and the lower eulittoral zone. 

World distribution: Also recorded from Namibia (Wynne 1986b), Mozambique and Chile (Guiry and Guiry 2013).

Type locality: “Cape of Good Hope” (Silva et al 1996).

 

Streblocladia corymbifera, scale bar ca. 1mm (west coast specimen).

Streblocladia corymbifera, (west coast specimen).

Streblocladia corymbifera, spermatangial heads.

Streblocladia corymbifera, tetrasporangial branchlets.

Streblocladia corymbifera, showing pericentral cells (stained specimen).

Streblocladia corymbifera, tetrasporangia in spiral arrangement.

Streblocladia corymbifera 1. Thallus apex. 2. Detail of (lightly corticated) axis. 3. Spermatangial heads. Reproduced from Stegenga et al. (1997).

Streblocladia corymbifera 1. Tetrasporangia. 2. Cystocarps. Reproduced from Stegenga et al. (1997).

 

References Streblocladia corymbifera

Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2013. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 20 May 2013.

Kylin, H. 1938. Verzeichnis einiger Rhodophyceen von Südafrika. Acta Universitatis Lundensis 34(8): 1-26, 10 figs, 8 plates.

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.

Wynne, M.J. 1986b. Report on a collection of benthic marine algae from the Namibian coast (southwestern Africa). Nova Hedwigia 43: 311-355.

 

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 18 November 2024.