Gastroclonium Kützing, 1843, nom. cons.

Holotype species: Gastroclonium ovale Kützing

Currently accepted name for the type species: Gastroclonium ovatum (Hudson) Papenfuss

Original publication and holotype designation: Kützing, F.T. (1843). Phycologia generalis oder Anatomie, Physiologie und Systemkunde der Tange. Mit 80 farbig gedruckten Tafeln, gezeichnet und gravirt vom Verfasser. pp. [part 1]: [i]-xxxii, [1]-142, [part 2:] 143-458, 1, err.], pls 1-80. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus.

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Description: Thallus with branched or discoid holdfast and fronds consisting of an erect solid terete stipe and erect or reflexed, terete or compressed deciduous branches sometimes short and vesicle-like, sometime longer and segmented by septa and filled with a watery mucilage, branching dichotomous or lateral and variable; multiaxial construction, branches filled with a watery mucilage, with a tubular inner cortex of large cells covered by an incomplete layer of smaller cells and lined inside by discrete, parallel longitudinal medullary filaments bearing inwardly-directed secretory cells and uniting with monostromatic septa between the segments. Gametangial plants dioecious, reproductive structures developing only on the mucilage-filled branches; spermatangia in superficial sori, terminal on elongated mother cells borne on branched filaments derived from cortical cells; procarpic, carpogonial branches 4-celled, with two 2-celled auxiliary cell branches, gonimoblast developing outwards, carposporangia large, wedge-shaped, developing directly from a large fusion cell, cystocarps protruding externally, cortex forming a thick pericarp without a pore, tela arachnoidea absent; tetrahedral tetrasporangia or polysporangia intercalary in cortical filaments, scattered in the younger parts.

Information contributed by: M.D. Guiry. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2017-01-24 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 neuter.

Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Desvaux, N.A. (1809). Observations sur le genre Fluggea, Rich. (Slateria, Desv.). Journal de Botanique (Desvaux) 1(4): 243-246.

Comments: Gastroclonium is very similar in structure and reproduction to Chylocladia, the only distinguishing feature being the presence of a solid stalk in the former and its absence in the latter; further studies may show that they are congeneric. Gastroclonium species occur in the north (type species) and south Atlantic, the Pacific coast of north America, Japan, China, and India. The genus is conspicuously absent from South Africa, Australasia and the south Pacific (Abbott & Hollenberg, 1976; Srinivasan 1960; Pujals 1967; Chang & Xia, 1976; Guiry & Irvine, 1983; Yoshida 1985; Hawkes & Scagel 1986). Many of the species, including the type, form polysporangia with 8 or 16 spores in place of, or together with, tetrasporangia (Guiry 1978, 1990). In the British Isles, most plants of G. ovatum shed the mucilage-filled branches in July and August; the solid parts then develop new vesicles in the following autumn and reproduction takes place on the new vesicles in the spring and early summer. Germination of spores takes place only at relatively low temperatures (Guiry unpublished data).

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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=119

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 24 January 2017. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 19 April 2024