Wurdemannia Harvey, 1853

Holotype species: Wurdemannia setacea Harvey

Currently accepted name for the type species: Wurdemannia miniata (Sprengel) Feldmann & Hamel

Original publication and holotype designation: Harvey, W.H. (1853). Nereis boreali-americana; or, contributions towards a history of the marine algae of the atlantic and pacific coasts of North America. Part II. Rhodospermeae. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge 5(5): [i-ii], [1]-258, pls XIII-XXXVI.

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Description: Plants are multiaxial and nearly pseudoparenchymatous in cross section, the medullary cells being longitudinally elongate. Tetrasporangia are zonate, the sporangia aggregated in slightly swollen tips of fertile axes. Sexual reproduction is unknown. Plants reach 5 cm in height and form tufts or turfs of wiry erect axes arising from entangled rhizomatous bases. Cells of the central medulla are elongate and thin-walled, becoming shorter and thicker-walled peripherally. Plants are multiaxial and nearly pseudoparenchymatous in cross section, the medullary cells being longitudinally elongate. Tetrasporangia are zonate, the sporangia aggregated in slightly swollen tips of fertile axes. Sexual reproduction is unknown.

Information contributed by: G.T. Kraft. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2017-01-23 by M.D. Guiry.

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

Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Saunders, G.W., Chiovitti, A. & Kraft, G.T. (2004). Small-subunit rRNA gene sequences from representatives of selected families of the Gigartinales and Rhodymeniales (Rhodophyta). 3. Recognizing the Gigartinales sensu stricto. Canadian Journal of Botany 82: 43-74.

Comments: Distribution: From North Carolina southward throughout the Carribbean; Mediterranean Sea and possibly the Indian and western Pacific Oceans, often intertidally in surf zones (Taylor 1960) but also dredged from deep water (Boergesen, 1920). The Family Wurdemanniaceae, questionably distinct from the Solieriaceae on anatomical grounds, were recently subsumed into the latter family by Saunders et al. (2004) based on small-subunit rDNA sequence studies.

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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Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera, organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and intended to be published in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=38904

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 23 January 2017. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 22 November 2024