Scytothalia Greville, 1830

Holotype species: Scytothalia dorycarpa (Turner) Greville

Original publication and holotype designation: 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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Description: Thallus to 2 m long with axes bearing alternate, flat lateral branches. Conical holdfast with radiating, branched haptera. Growth from an apical meristem consisting of 1-2 4-sided apical cells and surrounding meristematic tissue. Thallus is parenchymatous and differentiated into a meristoderm of small cells with numerous chloroplasts, a cortex of larger, vacuolate cells and a filamentous medulla. Discoid chloroplasts lack pyrenoids. Life history is diplontic. Sexual reproduction is oogamous. Individuals are monoecious with compressed lanceolate receptacles to 15 mm long and 5 mm broad, on adaxial margins of laterals. Conceptacles are uni- or bisexual containing antheridia and/or oogonia. Oogonia produce one egg, approximately 140 µm diameter, and several vestigial cells. On egg release, the oogonial collar (derived from the mesochiton) is transformed into a mucilaginous stalk attaching the egg to the conceptacle.

Information contributed by: M. N. Clayton. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2014-06-21 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: Silberfeld, T., Rousseau, F. & Reviers, B. de (2014). An updated classification of brown algae (Ochrophyta, Phaeophyceae). Cryptogamie Algologie 35(2): 117-156, 1 fig., 1 table.

Comments: Scytothalia is endemic in temperate regions of Australia from Western Australia to Tasmania and Victoria.

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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Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera, organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and intended to be published in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=42947

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 21 June 2014. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 22 November 2024