Meristotheca J.Agardh, 1872
Lectotype species: Meristotheca papulosa (Montagne) J.Agardh
Original publication: Agardh, J.G. (1872). Bidrag till Florideernes systematik. Lunds Universitets Års-Skrift, Afdelningen for Mathematik och Naturvetenskap 8(6): 1-60.
Request PDFType designated in: Schmitz, F. (1889). Systematische Übersicht der bisher bekannten Gattungen der Florideen. Flora oder Allgemeine botanische Zeitung 72: 435-456, pl. XXI.
Description: Plants reach 25 cm in length, are flattened, linear to blade-like, and are erect to prostrate and imbricating. Anchorage tends to be by both a main and numerous secondary holdfast discs. Axes are multiaxial, cells of each central axial filament cutting off a single periaxial, the successive periaxials being rotated. The medulla is broad and filamentous, and is composed mainly of unbranched rhizoids. Inner cortical cells are large and often stellate. Carpogonial branches are 3-celled, the basal cells occasionally bearing a sterile cell. Fertilization results in a single, unbranched connecting filament in the one species where this has been seen (Gabrielson and Kraft 1984), and the gonimoblast initial is scooped out laterally from the auxiliary cell. Carposporophytes consist of a central placenta of mixed and partially fused gametophytic and gonimoblastic cells surrounded by carposporangial gonimoblast filaments and narrow sterile gonimoblasts that enter and fuse with cells of the encircling filamentous hull. Carposporangia are single and terminal, the carpospores being released through an ostiole in the thick, protuberant pericarp. Gametophytes are monoecious, the spermatangial mother cells forming at the surface of carpogonial nemathecia. Tetrasporangia are cut off laterally.
Information contributed by: G.T. Kraft. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2022-11-29 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: Nguyen, X.-V., Nguyen, X.-T., Kittle, R.P., III, & McDermid, K.J. (2022). Meristotheca lysonensis sp. nov. (Solieriaceae, Rhodophyta), a new flattened species from Vietnamese waters. Phytotaxa 574(2): 137-148, 14 figs, 1 table.
Comments: Although a widespread and, in places, economically valuable genus, many reproductive details of Meristotheca were not well documented until Gabrielson and Kraft's (1984) recent study. Phenology and spore germination of the type species have been studied by Shinmura (1974a, 1974b). Distribution: Although not reported from its Red Sea type locality since its initial description, the type species is widely recorded from Pakistan, Indonesia, China, Japan and western and eastern subtropical Australia. Other species occur in eastern Australia (Lord Howe Island), Japan, the Philippines, Florida and Brazil.
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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=35129
Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 29 November 2022. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 22 November 2024
