Mychodeophyllum Kraft, 1978
Holotype species: Mychodeophyllum papillitectum Kraft
Original publication and holotype designation: Kraft, G.T. (1978). Studies of marine algae in the lesser-known families of the Gigartinales (Rhodophyta). III. The Mychodeaceae and Mychodeophyllaceae. Australian Journal of Botany 26: 515-610, 46 figs.
Request PDFDescription: The genus has the characteristics of the family. Plants reach lengths of 15-20 cm overall, the blades borne on stalks to 5 cm in length. Probable closest alliances are with the Mychodeaceae, but the multiaxial structure and catenate carposporangia differ sufficiently to warrant placement in a separate family. Dixon (1982) rejected the family, but erred in any case by implying that Mychodeophyllum itself is synonymous with Mychodea, from which it is certainly generically distinct. A monospecific family in which plants are erect from a crustose base and consist of perennial, cartilaginous branched stalks and seasonal, laminar blades. Axes are multiaxial and consist of a medulla of mixed isodiametric cells and narrow filaments surrounded by a cortex in which many of the surface cells proliferate into short, papillar outgrowths. All but the surface cells are multinucleate and secondarily pit connected. Gametophytes are monoecious, polycarpogonial and procarpic, the inner cortical supporting cells bearing numerous 3-celled, outwardly directed carpogonial branches and acting as the auxiliary cell on diploidization by direct fusion with the fertilized carpogonium. Multiple gonimoblast initials are directed inwardly and grow as filaments along the border of the filamentous medulla and the cellular cortex. Carposporangia form outwardly radiating chains around the periphery of the sterile fiflamentous center. Cystocarps are stalked or sessile along blade margins and consist of a thick, non-ostiolate pericarp covered in papillae. Spermatangia occur in isolated clusters on groups of mother cells surrounding a basal cell. Tetrasporophytes are isomorphic with gametophytes and bear intercalary zonate tetrasporangia scattered across blade surfaces.
Information contributed by: G.T. Kraft. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2010-10-07 by M.D. Guiry.
Taxonomic status: This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.
Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Schneider, C.W. & Wynne, M.J. (2007). A synoptic review of the classification of red algal genera a half a century after Kylin's "Die Gattungen der Rhodophyceen". Botanica Marina 50: 197-249.
Comments: Distribution: Known only from a narrow latitudinal range along the coast of Western Australia. Despite being large and conspicuous, plants are presently known only from drift and have not been traced to their habitat.
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Contributors
Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera,
organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA)
and intended to be published in CD format.
These AlgaeBase descriptions are now being continually updated, and each current contributor is identified above.
The PSA and AlgaeBase warmly acknowledge the generosity of all past and present contributors and particularly the work of Dr Parker.
Descriptions of chrysophyte genera were subsequently published in J. Kristiansen & H.R. Preisig (eds.). 2001. Encyclopedia of Chrysophyte Genera. Bibliotheca Phycologica 110: 1-260.
Linking to this page: https://www.algaebase.org/search/genus/detail/?genus_id=39983
Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 07 October 2010. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 19 April 2024
