Curdiea Harvey, 1855
Holotype species: Curdiea laciniata Harvey
Currently accepted name for the type species: Curdiea angustata (Sonder) A.J.K.Millar
Original publication and holotype designation: Harvey, W.H. (1855). Short characters of some new genera and species of algae discovered on the coast of the colony of Victoria, Australia. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 2 15: 332-336, Plate VIII.C.
Request PDFDescription: Plants can exceed 30 cm in length, and are erect from a single crustose base or recumbent and anchored at several points. Fronds range from linear and subdichotomously divided (with varying numbers of marginal prolifications) to foliose and irregularly lobed. Most species are coarse and thick, and no single central axial filaments are apparent in any of the branch orders. Cystocarps are marginal or scattered, very thick-walled, protuberant or deeply sunken in the thallus, and lack tubular nutrient cells. Procarp and early post fertilization events are virtually identical to those of Gracilaria, but subsequent gonimoblast development differs. Gonimoblast initials form thallus-outwardly on the fusion cell, become multinucleate, and initiate outwardly directed chains of gonimoblast cells that mature basipetally into catenate carposporangia while the innermost gonimoblast cells consolidate laterally and basally through their primary pit connections to augment the fusion cell. Fusions also take place between uninucleate cells of the inner gonimoblast tissue and the multinucleate gametmophytic cells at floor of the cystocarp as well as between isolated intercalary gonimoblast cells and cytologically modified inner pericarp cells. Spermatangia are known only in Curdiea coriacea from New Zealand (Nelson & Knight 1997), in which they are formed in nemathecia; tetrasporangia also form in nemathecia.
Information contributed by: G.T. Kraft & M.D. Guiry. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2024-07-09 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: Lyra, D. de M., Iha, C., Grassa, C.J., Cai, L., Zhang, H.G., Lane, C., Blouin, N., Oliveira, M.C., Nunes, J. M de C. & Davis, C.C. (2021). Phylogenomics, divergence time estimation and trait evolution provide a new look into the Gracilariales (Rhodophyta). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 165(107294): [1-14], 4 figures.
Comments: Most of the 12 species are endemic to southern Australia, particularly the southwest corner, and New Zealand, with 3 species from Antarctica and the subantarctic islands of South Georgia and Crozet. Fredericq and Hommersand (1989) and Nelson & Knight (1997) emphasize the lack of sterile tissue in the carposporophyte and the long, basipetally maturing carposporangial chains as distinctive and defining of Curdiea.
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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=34271
Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 09 July 2024. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 22 November 2024
