Home / Rhodophyceae / Macroreds / Membranoptera
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Name derivation:
Membranoptera : L. membranous: membrane, skin + ptera: winged spinulosa= L. spinulose or with small spines
Classification:
Membranoptera Stackhouse 1809; 12 of 30 species descriptions are currently accepted taxonomically (Guiry and Guiry 2014). Order Ceramiales; Family Delesseriaceae
Morphology:
Algae are foliose, with linear branches, alternately pinnate to dichotomous branching, with a thin monostromatic wing bordering the midrib, and a discoid holdfast. Tetrasporangia and spermatia occur in marginal sori at tips of branchlets or proliferations that become corticated. algae are perennials and particularly abundant in spring and early summer.
Similar genera:
Hommersand and Lin (2009) suggest that algae previously referred to Membranoptera alata in the Northwest Atlantic may be restricted to Europe and that American samples are most similar to M. spinulosa.
Habitat:
Common to rare in the lower littoral and shallow sublittoral zones on the open coasts; also found in drift and on stipes of kelps, Ptilota, Desmarestia, and hydroids.
References:
Guiry, M.D. and G.M. Guiry 2013. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 07 May 2013. Hommersand, M. S. and S.-M. Lin. 2009. Phylogeny and systematics of species of Phycodrys and Membranoptera (Delesseriaceae, Rhodophyta) that exhibit trans-Arctic distributions between the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. In: Abstracts , 48^th Northeast Algal Symposium, Univ. Massachusetts, Amherst, p. 23. Stackhouse, J. 1809. Tentamen marino-cryptogamicum, ordinem novum; in genera et species distributum, in Classe XXIVta Linnaei sistens. Mémoires de la Société Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou 2: [50]-97. Taylor, W. R. 1957. Marine Algae of the Northeastern Coast of North America. Revised edition. Univ. Michigan Press., Ann Arbor, ix + 509 pp.(as Membranoptera alata).