Phaeophyceae
Read about Phaeophyceae in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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PHAEOPHYCEAE (Brown Seaweeds) A large group of salt-water algae, well known in all waters of the globe, but most abundant in the colder regions. Plant body attached, usually thalloid and branched, but very diverse; in some cases filamentous, in others disk-shaped or globular. The larger forms of Laminaria are sometimes 200 feet long. The chromatophores of the Phaeophyceae contain a brown pigment which gives to these plants a brown or yellowish color instead of green. The thallus is often very tough and cartilaginous, to resist the waves. Zoospores are often produced. In sexual reproduction, the gametes are either similar and motile, rarely non-motile, or more often the sperm is motile while the egg is much larger and non-motile. Details of structure in respect to reproduction, however, are very great. The thallus of various species of Phaeophyceae yields iodine and soda. Some species (e.g., Laminaria saccharina) yield mannite and are used in the Orient for food. The dried stalks of L. digitata and L. Cloustoni have been used in surgery. Fucus and other genera are used as manure. One species, Sargassum bacciferum, has accumulated in great quantities in the Atlantic Ocean between the Bermuda Islands and the Spanish coast, in the so-called “Sargasso Sea."
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
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