Schmitzia hiscockiana

Schmitzia hiscockiana is a small, rare, red seaweed or marine alga of the phylum Rhodophyta or red algae. It was discovered and named in 1985.

Schmitzia hiscockiana
Scientific classification
(unranked): Archaeplastida
Division: Rhodophyta
Class: Florideophyceae
Order: Gigartinales
Family: Calosiphoniaceae
Genus: Schmitzia
Species:
S. hiscockiana
Binomial name
Schmitzia hiscockiana
Maggs & Guiry 1985

Distribution

This small red marine alga is known from most coasts of Ireland, Wales, England, and Scandinavia.[1]

Habitat

This species is known only from the sublittoral zone to 15m depth; it grows on cobbles and pebbles.

The gametophyte plants exist between April and August, and are in the crustose phase from September to December.

Species description

The gametophyte phase is a soft and gelatinous plant, no more than 8 cm long, 6 cm wide and a few millimeters thick. It is flattened and divided in a leaf-like manner with marginal proliferations. Rose pink in colour, the blades are composed of a filamentous axis bearing whorls of branchlets, four or five per axial cell. These whorls of branchlets form a cortex.

Life history

The plants are monoecious, bearing spermatia and carpogonia. After fertilization and development of connecting filaments and fusion with intercalary vegetative cells, a carposporphyte develops. The tetrasporophyte phase is crustose and unknown in the wild.[2] It is bright red and grows to 6 mm in diameter and composed of a single basal layer of cells which produce erect filaments some of which produce tetraspores. These tetraspores develop and grow to give rise to the gametophyte generations.[3]

Similar species

Other species of Schmitzia are distinct. S. neapolitana from the North Atlantic and Mediterranean is always terete. S. hiscockiana is easily recognizable: it more closely resembles S. evanescens (New Zealand) and S. japonica (Japan and Australia).

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References
  1. http://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=116
  2. Hardy, F.G. and Guiry, M.D. 2006. A Check-list and Atlas of the Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland. British Phycological Society, London. ISBN 3-906166-35-X
  3. Maggs, C.A. and Guiry, M.D. 1985. Life history and reproduction of Schmitzia hiscockiana sp.nov. (Rhodophyta, Gigartinales) from the British Isles. Phycologia 24: 297 – 310
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