Morphology and Reproduction of Griffithsia venusta Yamada (Ceramiaceae, Rhodophyta)

Algae > Volume 2(1); 1987 > Article

Algae 1987;2(1): 51-60.

Kim Hyung-Seop, In Kyu Lee

Department of Botany, Seoul National University

ABSTRACT

Griffithsia venusta Yamada was collected for the first time in Korea. The morphology and reproductive structures were investigated with field and laboratory culture materials. As a result, the diagnostic characters of the species agreed well with the original description. The development of procarpic and cystocarpic structures was also basically identical to the other species of Griffithsia, except that the procarp and mass of carposporangia bore no common gelatinous sheath which was generally observed in the other species. Moreover, this species produces numerous gonimoblast initials (ca. 25), in contrast to a few (ca. 3-4) in the other species. These characters were unique among the Griffithsieae. From the fact, we could conclude that the presence or absence of the common gelatinous sheath in female reproductive structure of Griffithsieae was correlated with the number of gonimoblast; if it is present, the gonimoblast becomes a few in number, whereas if it is absent, the gonimoblast becomes numerous.

Key words: Ceramiaceae, gonimoblast, Griffithsia venusta, morphology and reproduction, Rhodophyta