Home / Rhodophyceae / Macroreds / Caloglossa
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Name derivation:
Caloglossa (Harvey) G. Martens = Gr. calos: beautiful + glossa: a tongue or tongue-shaped lepreuii= named for a French naturalist who collected seaweeds in French Guiana Caloglossa J. Agardh first described in a mangrove region of French Guiana. Placed in Order Ceramiales, Family Delesseriaceae. Thalli are spreading, mostly prostrate, purplish red to almost black, and attached by rhizoids from the ventral surface at constrictions. Blades are linear to broadly oval, and constricted at forks or elsewhere; tips are acute and pincer-like. Branches are formed at nodes or midribs.
Classification:
Caloglossa (Harvey) G.Martens 1869; 20 of 39 species descriptions are currently accepted taxonomically (Guiry and Guiry 2014). Order Ceramiales; Famiy Delesseriaceae
Morphology:
Small, ~ 15 mm tall thalli. Leaf-like flattened blades with largest cells along the midribs and decreasing cell sizes toward margins of blade. Produces rhizoidal filaments and secondary endogenous branches at nodes along blade (Kamiya et al. 2000). Plants are spreading, mostly prostrate, purplish red to almost black, and attached by rhizoids from the ventral surface at constrictions. Blades are linear to broadly oval, and constricted at forks or elsewhere; tips are acute and pincer-like. Branches are formed at nodes or midribs. In the Americas, there are nine known species of Caloglossa. Although it has been deeply studied, the diversity of the species is not well understood. It was determined that new species were identified by comparative chloroplast-encoded rbcL and nuclear LSU rDNA sequence analysis, and also morphological observations. Species can be identified by their type of adventitious branching, thallus nodes, and blades (Krayesky et al. 2012).
Similar genera:
Apoglossum J. Agardh, Branchioglossum Kylin, Calloseris J. Agardh, Calonitophyllm Aregood, Cryptopleura Kuetzing, Grinnellia Harvey, Hypoglossum Kuetzing, Martensia Hering, Nitophyllum Greville & Polyneura Kylin.
Habitat:
Associated with mangroves and temperate estuaries (Kamiya et al. 2000). Euryhaline, grows in salinity range 5.3 – 70.0 ‰ (Karsten and West (1993). Common on mangrove roots and salt marsh plants, as well as on limestone, wood pilings, and other solid surfaces. Known from the Caribbean to Connecticut, also recorded from Bermuda, Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, French Guiana, West and South Africa, and the Indo-Pacific.
References:
Dawes, C. J. and A. C. Mathieson. 2008. The seaweeds of Florida. Univ. Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 591 pp. Guiry, M.D. and G.M. Guiry 2014. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 2 May 2014. Kamiya, M., J.A. West, G.C. Zuccarello, and H. Kawai 2000. Caloglossa intermedia, sp. nov. (Rhodophyta) from the western Atlantic coast: Molecular and morphological analyses with special reference to C. leprieurii and C. monosticha. J. Phycol. 36:411-420. Karsten, U., and J.A. West 1993. Ecophysiological studies on six species of the mangrove red algal genus Caloglossa. Aust. J. Plant Physiol. 20:729-39 . Krayesky, D., Norris, J., West, J., Kamiya, M., Viguerie, M., Wysor, B., Fredericq, S. (2012). Two new species of Caloglossa (Delesseriaceae, Rhodophyta) from the Americas, C. confusa and C. fluviatilis spp. nov. International Phycological Society 51(5): 513-530. Taylor, W. R. 1960. Marine algae of the eastern tropical and subtropical coasts of the America. Univ. Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 870 pp.