Nitophyllum punctatum (Stackhouse) Greville 1830

Publication Details
Nitophyllum punctatum (Stackhouse) Greville 1830: xlvii, 79, pl. 12

Published in: Greville, R.K. (1830). Algae britannicae, or descriptions of the marine and other inarticulated plants of the British islands, belonging to the order Algae; with plates illustrative of the genera. pp. [i]-lxxxviii, [1]-218, pl. 1-19. Edinburgh & London: McLachlan & Stewart; Baldwin & Cradock.

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Publication date: Feb.-March 1830

Type Species
This is the type species (lectotype) of the genus Nitophyllum.

Status of Name
This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.

Basionym
Fucus punctatus Stackhouse

Type Information
Type locality: "First discovered by Mr. Stackhouse, on the sands at Weymouth, very near the pier, at low water mark." [Weymouth, Dorset, England]; (Withering 1796: 405) Notes: Type in BM?

Origin of Species Name
Adjective (Latin), dotted, marked with dots, spots, minute glands, etc. (Stearn 1983).

General Environment
This is a marine species.

Description
Delicately membranous, rose-pink fronds with an elongate fan-shaped outline, margins distinctly frilly, to 40 mm or, exceptionally, to 1 m, sessile or shortly stipitate (< 2 mm long). Frond veinless, undivided or deeply subdichotomously divided to the base; apices blunt or rounded, often ribbon-like. Gametophyte plants form rounded spots to 5 mm in diameter whilst tetrasporphyte plants form characteristic elongated spots.

Habitat
Annual, intertidal pools in winter and early spring and in the subtidal (15 m) on cobble or other mobile surfaces and on bedrock in the lower parts of kelp forests from spring to mid-or late summer; widely distributed, frequent. Most obvious in spring and early summer.

Key Characteristics
Delicate, veinless, translucent fronds with and elongated fan shape and with elongate or rounded spots (reproductive sori) scattered regularly on most plants. Extremely large plants to 1 m long have been known for many years from NE Ireland; there is no explanation for this phenomenon.

Similar Species
Similarly delicate Porphyra species occur mainly in the intertidal but are more gelatinous to the touch and do not form well-defined rounded or elongated spots; Halarachnion ligulatum is less translucent, and is less delicate and not frilly; Haraldiophyllum bonnemaisonii is generally clearly stalked and has reproductive sori that are rounded rather than elongated.

Created: 31 March 1996 by M.D. Guiry.

Last updated: 06 December 2023

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Linking to this page: https://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=157

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 06 December 2023. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 30 December 2024

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