Acrotylus J.Agardh, 1849

Holotype species: Acrotylus australis J.Agardh

Original publication and holotype designation: Agardh, J.G. (1849). Algolosgiska bidrag. Öfversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Adademiens Förhandlingar, Stockholm 6: 79-89.

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Description: Plants reach 20 cm in length and are gregarious from an encrusting base, epiphytic or epilithic, linear, flattened, subdichotomous, and bear numbers of simple to forked marginal laterals. The medulla is broad and filamentous, surrounded by 2-3 cortical layers of conspicuously enlarged ovoid cells and a shallow anticlinal outer cortex. Supporting cells are polycarpogonial, and come to be surrounded by dense clusters of nutritive cells following diploidization. Carpogonial branches are 3-celled, the basal cells occasionally bearing a single sterile cell. Cystocarps are deeply embedded in the axes and consist at maturity of an inner lining of radially stretched filaments from to which the centrepital gonimoblasts are anchored. Carposporangia are single and terminal, release being through a wide ostiole formed by the rupture and local breakdown of the cortex rather than by progressive differentiation of a pore. Tetrasporangia occur in raised nemathecial patches.

Information contributed by: G.T. Kraft. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2015-08-06 by M.D. Guiry.

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

Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Kraft, G.T. & Womersley, H.B.S. (1994). Family Acrotylaceae Schmitz 1892: 18. In: The marine benthic flora of southern Australia. Rhodophyta - Part IIIA. (Womersley, H.B.S. Eds), pp. 363-376. Canberra:

Comments: The anatomy of Acrotylus has been treated by Kraft (1977). Distribution: Growing from shallow subtidal to at least 20 m depths;endemic to southern Australia from Elliston, South Australia, eastward to Sydney, N.S.W., and around Tasmania.

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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Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera, organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and intended to be published in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=39889

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 06 August 2015. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 23 April 2024