Read about Rhodophyceae in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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RHODOPHYCEAE (Red Seaweeds) Mostly marine algae, a few only inhabiting fresh water, widely distributed, but most abundant in the tropics and temperate region at lower depths. The thallus is very diverse, filamentous, branched, often thalloid, attached by holdfasts, and red, violet, or purple in color, rarely green. True starch is not found. Asexual spore-reproduction is frequent. These spores are non-motile and produced in fours (tetraspores). Sexual reproduction is by dissimilar gametes, the antheridium becoming without change a single non-motile sperm-cell. The egg-cell is prolonged upward into a slender tube (trichogyne). The fertilized egg by division gives rise to a globular mass of short filaments (cystocarp) which produce asexual spores. These spores in turn give rise to the mature plant. The cystocarp and its spores, thus following fertilization, suggest the alternation of generations found in the mosses and liverworts and all higher plants. About 300 species of Rhodophyceae have been described. Carragheen, or Irish moss, used in jellies and puddings, is the dried thallus of Chondrus crispus and Gigartina mamillosa of northwestern Europe. Agar-agar, used in the preparation of culture media in bacteriology and mycology, is obtained from various species of this group.
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
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