Schmitzia hiscockiana

Taxobox
name = "Schmitzia hiscokiana"


image_width = 250px
image_caption =
regnum = Archaeplastida
phylum = Rhodophyta
classis = Rhodophyceae
ordo =
familia =
genus = "Schmitzia"
species = "S. hiscockiana"
binomial = "Schmitzia hiscockiana"
binomial_authority = Maggs & Guiry

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

Distribution

This small red marine algae has been found at about 10 sites in Northern Ireland.

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.

pecies 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, blades composed of a filamentous axis bearing whorls of branchlets 4 or 5 per axial cell. These whorls of branchlets form a cortex.

Life cycle

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. [ 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 ] 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. [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]

imilar 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).

References

1. 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 .

2. 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.

External links

* http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/species.asp?item=ZM5590