Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Ceramiales

Family Delesseriaceae

Taenioma perpusillum (J. Agardh) J. Agardh 1863: 1257

Plants dark brown to blackish, minute (to a few mm tall), with prostrate and erect portions. Main axes terete, with central filament and 4 pericentral cells per segment. Prostrate axes terete, 120-140 µm in diameter, attached by unicellular rhizoids or haptera arising from pericentral cells. Erect axes with alternately arranged determinate laterals that are compressed and about 120 µm wide, the lateral pericentral cells each bearing two flanking cells, the transverse pericentrals remaining undivided; the apex of each branch bearing three conspicuous multicellular hairs, each composed of one to several elongated cells. Reproductive structures not seen.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

Recorded from the relatively warm waters of Langebaan Lagoon in the Western Cape, and then from De Hoop along the south and east coasts to northern Kwazulu-Natal (23-58). Found in algal turfs in the lower eulittoral.

World distribution: worldwide in warm temperate and tropical seas. Fertile material seems to be rare worldwide (Stegenga et al. 1997).

Type locality: Oaxaca, Mexico (Silva et al. 1996).

Note: This species should not be confused with vegetative plants of Platysiphonia delicata, which lack the three uniseriate hairs on each upright axis.

 

Taenioma perpusillum. 1. Microscopic habit. 2. Apex of branchlets, showing terminal hairs. Reproduced from Stegenga et al. (1997).

 

References Taenioma

Agardh, J. 1863. Species genera et ordines Floridearum 2 (3). Lund, 701-1291.

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: 640 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 19 December 2024.