Durvillaea Bory, 1826

Holotype species: Durvillaea utilis Bory

Currently accepted name for the type species: Durvillaea antarctica (Chamisso) Hariot

Original publication and holotype designation: Bory de Saint-Vincent, J.B.G.M. (1826). Laminaire, Laminaria. In: Dictionnaire Classique d'Histoire Naturelle. (Audouin, I. et al. Eds) Vol. 9, pp. 187-194.

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Description: Massive thallus to 10 m long with a large discoid holdfast, a robust stipe and leathery fronds divided from near the base or from above into stipitate, ligulate or broad blades. Growth is diffuse in the upper part of the blades and in the meristoderm. Thallus structure is essentially haplostichous and differentiated into a meristoderm with relatively small cells arranged in radiating files and containing numerous physodes and chloroplasts, grading into a cortex of larger vacuolate cells and medulla of intertwined hyphal filaments with or without air chambers. Extensive deposits of intercellular wall material are present. Discoid chloroplasts lack pyrenoids. Life history is diplontic. Sexual reproduction is oogamous. Individuals are dioecious with conceptacles containing antheridia or oogonia scattered all over the blades. Antheridia develop on branched paraphyses. Spermatozoids are colorless, lack an eyespot and are not phototactic. Oogonia develop on the conceptacle wall or branched paraphyses, and produce 4 eggs each approx. 30 µm in diameter and in Durvillaea potatorum having a second vestigial nucleus in addition to the egg nucleus. Eggs secrete the sperm attractant, hormosirene.

Information contributed by: M. N. Clayton. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2017-03-18 by M.D. Guiry.

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

Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Silberfeld, T., Rousseau, F. & Reviers, B. de (2014). An updated classification of brown algae (Ochrophyta, Phaeophyceae). Cryptogamie Algologie 35(2): 117-156, 1 fig., 1 table.

Comments: Durvillaea occurs intertidally and subtidally in cold temperate and subantarctic regions of the southern hemisphere, and commonly forms dense stands.

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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Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera, organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and intended to be published in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=42573

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 18 March 2017. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 23 April 2024