Rama V.J.Chapman, 1952

Holotype species: Rama novae-zelandiae (J.Agardh) V.J.Chapman

Original publication and holotype designation: Chapman, V.J. (1952). New entities in the Chlorophyceae of New Zealand. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 80: 47-58, ps 21, 22.

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Description: Dark green intertidal plants with thick, rather robust filaments. The morphological variation is very wide, ranging from densely branched upright thalli, basally branched prostrate plants with lateral rhizoids and long unbranched apical parts, to unbranched filaments with or without rhizoids. Rhizoids can have haptera and anastomose, leading to entangled mats of thalli. Cell walls thick and lamellate, up to 12 ?m across in apical parts and second-order branches, up to 50 µm in main axes. Growth by intercalary cell divisions. When densely branched, axes lined with branches of different length or lined with short, pointed ramuli, branching angles acute, polytomies common. Reproduction insufficiently known in most species, zoospores and gametes produced in terminal parts of thalli, typically in chains of thick-walled sporangia or gametangia that release zoospores or gametes through a lateral pore in the apical third of the cell.

Information contributed by: Boedeker & al. 2023. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2023-12-05 by M.D. Guiry.

Taxonomic status: This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.

Gender: This genus name is currently treated as feminine.

Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Boedeker, C., Wynne, M.J. & Zuccarello, G.C. (2023). Hidden diversity in high-latitude Southern Hemisphere environments: Reinstatement of the genus Rama and description of Vandenhoekia gen. nov. (Cladophoraceae, Ulvophyceae, Chlorophyta), two highly variable genera. Journal of Phycology 59: 1284–1298, 4 figs.

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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Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera, organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and intended to be published in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=42941

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 05 December 2023. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 25 April 2024