Furcellaria J.V.Lamouroux, 1813: 45
Holotype species: Furcellaria fastigiata (Turner) J.V.Lamouroux
Currently accepted name for the type species: Furcellaria lumbricalis (Hudson) J.V.Lamouroux
Original publication and holotype designation:Lamouroux, J.V.F. (1813). Essai sur les genres de la famille des thalassiophytes non articulées. Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 20: 21-47, 115-139, 267-293, pls 7-13.
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Taxonomic status: currently recognized as a distinct genus.
Gender: This genus name is currently treated as feminine.
Description: Plants reach 30 cm in height, are erect from a branched holdfast, and are terete, repeatedly dichotomous, and cartilaginous. The medulla is densly crowded with axial and rhizoidal filaments. Gametophytes are dioecious, the spermatangia borne in superficial subapical sori. Carpogonial branches are 3-5-celled, and usually borne several per supporting cell. Tetrasporangia are scattered in the cortex of isomorphic tetrasporophytes (Dixon and Irvine, 1977). Austin (1960a, 1960b) has made life-history and anatomical studies of the genus, which also produces a commercially valuable, carrageenan-related wall extract called Furcellaran (Schachat & Glicksman, 1959).
Comments: Distribution: North Atlantic from Nova Scotia north and east through Greenland, Iceland and northern Russia to Britain and Ireland, France, the Baltic Sea, Norway to N Spain,. Plants occur in the lower littoral to 12 m depths (Dixon and Irvine, 1977).
NCBI Nucleotide Sequences
Numbers of names and species: There are 9 species (and infraspecific) names in the database at present, of which 1 has been flagged as currently accepted taxonomically.
Names: ('C' indicates a name that is currently accepted taxonomically; 'S' a homotypic or heterotypic synonym; 'U' indicates a name of uncertain taxonomic status, but which has been subjected to some verification nomenclaturally; 'P' indicates a preliminary AlgaeBase entry that has not been subjected to any kind of verification. For more information on a species click on it to activate a link to the Species database):
Furcellaria fastigiata (Turner) J.V.Lamouroux S - type
Furcellaria fastigiata f. aegagropila Reinke S
Furcellaria fastigiata var. minor C.Agardh S
Furcellaria fastigiata f. minor (C.Agardh) Svedelius S
Furcellaria fastigiata f. tenuior Areschoug S
Furcellaria lumbricalis (Hudson) J.V.Lamouroux C
Furcellaria lumbricalis var. fastigiata (Turner) Lyngbye S
Furcellaria lycopodioides (Linnaeus) C.Agardh S
Furcellaria rotunda (Hudson) Lyngbye S
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: http://www.algaebase.org/search/genus/detail/?genus_id=37304
Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2013. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 19 May 2013.
Algaebase taxon LSID: urn:lsid:algaebase.org:taxname:8040
