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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus PILAYELLA Bory 1823: 393

Phylum Phaeophyta – Order Ectocarpales

Thallus filamentous, uniseriate, much branched, with filaments tapering into false hairs, attached by rhizoids from lower cells. Phaeophycean hairs absent. Growth diffuse. Cells with numerous discoid phaeoplasts, each with a pyrenoid.

Reproduction: Reproduction by intercalary plurilocular gametangia or neutral sporangia or unilocular meio- or mitosporangia, surmounted by a uniseriate filament; generations isomorphic.

Type species: P. littoralis (Linnaeus) Kjellman.

Taxonomic notes: A genus of several species (Pedersen 1984, p. 13), with the type species found in most cold temperate waters. The spelling of the generic name has been discussed by Dixon & Russell (1964, p. 280). Pedersen (1984, pp. 50, 51) discusses life history patterns in Pilayella and erects the family Pilayellaceae (including several other genera) on the basis that sporangia are formed by transformation of vegetative cells and occasional longitudinal divisions occur in vegetative cells.

References:

DIXON, P.S. & RUSSELL, G. (1964). Miscellaneous notes on algal taxonomy and nomenclature, I. Bot. Not. 117(3), 279–284.

PEDERSEN, P.M. (1984). Studies on primitive brown algae (Fucophyceae). Opera Bot. 74, 1–76.

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

Author: H.B.S. Womersley

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (14 December, 1987)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Part II
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