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Electronic Flora of South Australia Family Fact Sheet

Tribe GRIFFITHSIEAE Schmitz 1889: 449

Phylum Rhodophyta – Order Ceramiales – Family Ceramiaceae

Thallus of subdichotomous indeterminate branches (trichotomous in Calliclavula) generally arising subapically, but from lower thallus parts in Halurus and Calliclavula; a range of determinate laterals initiated simultaneously ("synchronic") from the upper shoulders of cells; filaments ecorticate or loosely clothed with rhizoids near the thallus base; cells relatively large, 0.14–2.3 mm in diameter, L/D 1–9, cylindrical to globose; gland cells absent. Cells multinucleate, often with prominent crystalline inclusions; rhodoplasts discoid, numerous, scattered or in chains.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Female axis lateral, 3-celled, subapical cell bearing a procarp system of a lateral sterile cell and a supporting cell with an apical sterile cell and 1 (–2) lateral, recurved, 4-celled carpogonial branch(es); fusion cell columnar, formed from the auxiliary cell, residual supporting cell and lower gonimoblast cells, bearing 1–3 gonimolobes apically, most cells of which form globose, ovoid or clavate carposporangia. Involucral branches synchronic, 1–2-celled, arising from the hypogenous cell of the fertile axis, forming a cupulate involucre about the carposporophyte. Spermatangia on pedicellate heads, or on numerous minute fascicles clustered in the constrictions between vegetative cells towards the apex of filaments, or as a terminal mass on swollen vegetative apical cells; naked, or associated with 1-celled involucral branches arising from the fascicles, or encircled by a palisade-like synchronic involucre produced in a whorl from the vegetative cell bearing the spermatangia.

Tetrasporangia pedicellate or in minute fascicles, similar in position to spermatangia, naked or with involucral branches as for spermatangia, tetrahedrally divided.

Life history triphasic with isomorphic gametophytes and tetrasporophytes.

Type genus. Griffithsia C. Agardh 1817:xxviii. (See Silva 1980, p.134 for orthographic conservation.)

Taxonomic notes: The Griffithsieae are readily recognised by their naked, uniseriate filaments of large cells, and include 6 genera of which Anotrichium (6 of 14 species) and Griffithsia (10 of 27 species) are well represented in southern Australia, and A. planatum and the monotypic Baldockia (Millar 1990, pp. 406–8) are endemic to the eastern coast of Australia.

Millar (1986 p. 93) considered the simultaneous initiation of determinate branches (synchronic laterals) as the definitive feature of the Griffithsieae, and later separated the genera on the basis of branch ontogeny (Millar & Abbott 1997, p. 95). The various forms of synchronic branches fit an evolutionary reduction series proposed by Baldock (1976, p. 567), and refined and expanded by Millar (1986, p. 94) and Searles & Schneider (1989, p. 732):

(a) whorls of subdichotomous, pigmented, relatively robust branches which may bear tetrasporangia or spermatangial clusters basally (Halurus, Baldockia),

(b) whorls of pigmented, relatively delicate cells ("villous laterals" of Millar 1990, p. 90) (Calliclavula, Ossiella),

(c) whorls (Anotrichium tenue, A. secundum, A. barbatum) or clusters (Griffithsia, Anotrichium spp.) of colourless, polychotomous, hair-like branchlets rtrichoblasts" of Baldock (1976); "villous whorl-branchlets" of Millar (1986, p. 95)], which are usually caducous, but may bear tetrasporangia or spermatangial clusters on their permanent, enlarged, pigmented basal cells in Anotrichium barbatum (Maggs & Hommersand 1993, p.179).

(d) whorls of pedicels bearing tetrasporangia or spermatangial heads (Anotrichium tenue, A. secundum), considered remnant basal cells of the A. barbatum type by Joly (1956, p. 29) and Baldock (1976 p. 571), although this is disputed by Kim & Lee (1991, p. 20) for A. tenue,

(e) involucral branches of carposporophytes, whorled (Anotrichium, Baldockia, Halurus, Ossiella) or abaxial (Griffithsia) from hypogenous cells, and (f) involucral branches of tetrasporophytes produced in a whorl from the vegetative cell bearing the masses of tetrasporangial fascicles (G. antarctica group of Griffithsia).

In Anotrichium towinna and Griffithsia balara, lateral branches of restricted growth are produced sequentially in a whorl of 3–4 from the upper shoulders of cells near the apices of axes of indeterminate growth. Although morphologically these resemble the robust synchronic laterals of Halurus and to a lesser extent the more delicate ones of Ossiella and Calliclavula, they are a modification of the subdichotomous pattern of main axes, and are not homologous to synchronic determinate laterals.

References:

AGARDH, C.A. (1817). Synopsis Algarum Scandinaviae. (Berling: Lund.)

BALDOCK, R.N. (1976). The Griffithsieae group of the Ceramiaceae (Rhodophyta) and its southern Australian representatives. Aust. J. Bot. 24, 509–593.

JOLY, A.B. (1956). The sexual female plants of Griffithsia tenuis C. Agardh. Biol. Fac. Fil. Ciencias e Letras, Univ. S. Paulo. No. 209, Bot. No. 13, 25–31, Plate I.

KIM, H.-S. & LEE, I.K. (1991). Two species of Anotrichium Naegelli (Ceramiaceae, Rhodophyta) in Korea, specially referred to the subgeneric groups. Korean .1. Phycol. 6(1), 13–22.

MAGGS, C.A. & HOMMERSAND, M.H. (1993). Seaweeds of the British Isles. Vol. 1. Rhodophyta. Part 3A, Ceramiales. (HMSO: London.)

MILLAR, A.J.K. & ABBOTT, I.A. (1997). The new genus and species Ossiella pacifica (Griffithsieae, Rhodophyta) from Hawaii and Norfolk Island, Pacific Ocean../. Phycol. 33, 88–96.

MILLAR, A.J.K. (1986). Baldockia verticillata (Griffithsieae, Ceramiales), a new red algal genus and species from eastern Australia. Phycologia 25(1), 87–97.

MILLAR, A.J.K. (1990). Marine red algae of the Coffs Harbour region, northern New South Wales. Aust. Syst. Bot. 3, 293–593.

SCHMITZ, F. (1889). Systematische Ubersicht der bisher bekannten Gattungen der Florideen. Flora, Jena 72, 435–456, Plate 21.

SEARLES, R.B. & SCHNEIDER, C.W. (1989). New genera and species of Ceramiaceae (Rhodophyta) from the southeastern United States. J. Phycol. 25, 731–740.

SILVA, R.C. (1980). Remarks on algal nomenclature VI. Taxon 29, 121–145.

The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIC complete list of references.

Author: H.B.S. Womersley

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (24 December, 1998)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIIC. Ceramiales – Ceramiaceae, Dasyaceae
©State Herbarium of South Australia, Government of South Australia

KEY TO GENERA OF GRIFFITHSIEAE

1. Vegetative axial cells in mid thallus generally large, 0.35–4 mm in diameter and L/D 1–5, cylindrical to ovoid-globose; hair-like synchronic laterals in pairs flanking female fertile axes, caducous. Female axis with a small, discoid hypogenous cell bearing 2-celled synchronic involucral branches in an abaxial arc, the lower cell small, the upper cell elongate and incurved. Spermatangia and tetrasporangia in clusters on numerous minute whorled fascicles in the constrictions between vegetative cells, associated with inflated involucral cells or naked

GRIFFITHSIA

1. Vegetative axial cells in mid thallus smaller, (0.04–) 0.2–0.6 (–0.9) mm in diameter and L/D 1.7–10, elongate-cylindrical; synchronic hair-like laterals whorled, or clustered adjacent to female axes, persisting until carposporophytes mature. Female axis with cylindrical hypogenous cell enlarging to become pyriform-clavate, similar in length to a vegetative cell and bearing a cupulate whorl of 1-celled, elongate, synchronic involucral branches. Spermatangial heads single and terminal or subterminal and adaxial on large, clavate pedicels, in synchronic whorls (A. tenue, A. secundum), or single and adaxial from the upper parts of vegetative cells; involucral cells absent. Tetrasporangia single, terminal or subterminal and adaxial on pedicels, in a synchronic whorl of 8–12 (A. tenue, A. secundum), or in adaxial clusters of 1–4; involucral cells absent

ANOTRICHIUM


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