| Schmitzia hiscockiana | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Protoctista |
| Phylum: | Rhodophyta |
| Class: | Florideophyceae |
| Order: | Gigartinales |
| Family: | Calosiphoniaceae |
| Genus: | Schmitzia |
| Species: | S. hiscockiana |
| Binomial name | |
| Schmitzia hiscockiana Maggs & Guiry |
|
Schmitzia hiscockiana Maggs & Guiry is a small, rare, red seaweed or marine alga of the phylum Rhodophyta or red algae. It was discovered and named in 1985.
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This small red marine alga is known from most coasts of Ireland, Wales, England, and Scandinavia [1].
This species is known only from the sublittoral zone to 15m depth; it grows on cobbles and pebbles.
The gametophyte plants exist between April and August, and are in the crustose phase from September to December.
The gametophyte phase is a soft and gelatinous plant, no more than 8 cm long, 6 cm wide and a few millimeters thick. It is flattened and divided in a leaf-like manner with marginal proliferations. Rose pink in colour, the blades are composed of a filamentous axis bearing whorls of branchlets, four or five per axial cell. These whorls of branchlets form a cortex.
The plants are monoecious, bearing spermatia and carpogonia. After fertilization and development of connecting filaments and fusion with intercalary vegetative cells, a carposporphyte develops. The tetrasporophyte phase is crustose and unknown in the wild. [2] It is bright red and grows to 6 mm in diameter and composed of a single basal layer of cells which produce erect filaments some of which produce tetraspores. These tetraspores develop and grow to give rise to the gametophyte generations. [3]
Other species of Schmitzia are distinct. S. neapolitana from the North Atlantic and Mediterranean is always terete. S. hiscockiana is easily recognizable: it more closely resembles S. evanescens (New Zealand) and S. japonica (Japan and Australia).