Gastroclonium reflexum

Taxobox | color = lightgreen
name = "Gastroclonium reflexum"
unranked_phylum = Archaeplastida
phylum = Rhodophyta
classis = Rhodophyceae
ordo = Rhodymeniales
familia = Champiaceae
genus = "Gastroclonium"
species = "G. reflexum"
binomial = "Gastroclonium reflexum"
binomial_authority = (Chauvin) Kützing

"Gastroclonium reflexum" is a small red alga (Rhodophyta) reported from Ireland and Britain.

Description

This small alga grows to about 6 cm long: the fronds grow from a branched holdfast are reflexed and form haptera where they meet the rock. The branches are hollow, terete to 6 cm long and constricted by septa giving a beaded appearance. The secondary branching is dichotomous, distichous. In colour they are dark purplish red. cite book |author=L. M. Irvine |year=1983 |title=Seaweeds of the British Isles, Volume 1, Part 2A |publisher=British Museum (Natural History), London |id=ISBN 0-565-00871-4] The species is very similar to "Chylocladia verticillata" with which it may be confused. cite journal |quotes=no |author=O. Morton |year=2003 |title=The marine algae of County Donegal, Ireland |journal=Bull. Ir. biogeog. Soc. |volume=27 |pages=3–164] Spermatangia, cystocarps and polysporangia have been recorded.

Distribution

"Gastroclonium" is widely distributed in the north Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, where it grows epilithically or epiphytically in the littoral or sublittoral zones. cite web |url=http://www.algaebase.org/speciesdetail.lasso?species_id=445 |title="Gastroclonium reflexum" (Chauvin) Kützing |author=M. D. Guiry & Wendy Guiry |date=2004-10-04 |work=AlgaeBase]

In Great Britain, it has been recorded from Cornwall, Devon, Sussex, Pembrokeshire and Glamorgan. It was first recorded from Ireland by W.H.Harvey as "Chylocladia reflexa" Leorm. and published in 1846. cite book |author=W. H. Harvey |year=1846 |title=Phycologia britannica... |publisher=Reeve and Benham, London] cite journal |quotes=no |author=M. D. Guiry, J. P. Cullinane & P. M. Whelan |year=1979 |title=Notes on Irish marine Algae - 3. new records of Rhodophyta from the Wexford coast |journal=Ir. Nat. J. |volume=19 |pages=304–307] Outside the British Isles, "Gastroclonium" has been recorded from the Channel Islands, Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, the Mediterranean Sea, Namibia, Morocco and South Africa.

Records

Specimens collected from Lough Swilly by W. Sawers in 1854 are now preserved in the Ulster Museum (BEL) (F7058; F7059 and F7060) were redetermined as "Chylocladia verticillata" by Guiry as "Chylocladia verticillata".

References