| Genus: |
Flabellia Reichenbach, 1841 |
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Description: |
Thallus non-calcified, basal parts stoloniferous, attached by hapteroid-like attaching organs; upper parts erect, flat, flabellate, stipitate assimilators (blades). Siipe slender, corticated; stolon tubular, cylindrical, coenocytic, without trabeculae. Blades thin, corticated, composed of siphonous, coenocytic, parallel, dichotomous axial filaments laterally branched, coherent to each other by lobulae (warty or botryoidal, crowded, tuberculate appendages), monostromatic or composed of filaments entirely free or slightly coherent by few lateral branchlets (Nizamuddin 1987). Fan-shaped green algae attached by a peduncle, 1 to 10 cm high, more or less covered with epiphytes.
Green leafy algae, fan-shaped, attached to the substrate * by a peduncle *. Generally small, Flabellia petiolata can reach 10 cm in height.
The non-calcified thallus has lighter concentric lines. Older individuals are often covered with epiphytes * and have an apical margin * more or less torn. LinK |
| Name History |
Adjective (Latin), petioled. |
| Biogeography |
The species is present in the Mediterranean and the temperate eastern Atlantic:
Balearic Islands; Italy; Greece; Sudan; Algeria; Egypt; Tunisia; Morocco; Israel; Atlantic Islands (Canary Is); Cape Verde Islands.
Pacific Ocean: Central Polynesia |
| Life Cycle |
Life-cycle: Flabellia petiolata is a perennial species that can live for many years. In winter, there may be only the base of the thallus, which will regenerate a new sling * in the following spring.
It is a siphonated alga: the thallus devoid of transverse septa contains several cellular nuclei in a common cytoplasm.
Fertile thalli have a white apical border (zone virtually devoid of chlorophyll). Reproduction is of holocarpic type *, that is, part of the thallus is transformed into gametes *. The development cycle is monogenetic *, only one type of thallus exists and gives birth to gametes.
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| References |
Cormaci, M., Furnari, G., & Alongi, G. (2014). Flora marina bentonica del Mediterraneo: Chlorophyta. Bollettino dell'Accademia Gioenia di Scienze Naturali di Catania 47: 11-436.
Nizamuddin, M. (1991). The green marine algae of Libya. pp. 1-230. Bern: El-Faateh University, Department of Botany.
Rodríguez-Prieto, C., Ballesteros, E., Boisset, F. & Afonso-Carrillo, J. (2013). Guía de las macroalgas y fanerógamas marinas del Mediterráneo occidental. pp. [1]-656. Barcelona: Ediciones Omega, S.A..
Serio, D., Alongi, G., Catra, M., Cormaci, M. & Furnari, G. (2006). Changes in the benthic algal flora of Linosa Island (Straits of Sicily, Mediterranean Sea). Botanica Marina 49: 135-144.
Silva, P.C. (1955). The dichotomous species of Codium in Britain. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 34: 565-577, 5 figs, 1 plate. |
