Morphology, vegetative and reproductive development of the red alga Portieria hornemannii (Gigartinales: Rhizophyllidaceae)

Extensive cryptic species diversity and fine-scale endemism in the marine red alga Portieria in the Philippines

“…The genus is a member of the red algal family Rhizophyllidaceae, which, next to Portieria, includes the (sub)tropical and species-poor genera Contarinia, Nesophila and Ochtodes [38]. Portieria typically forms bushy plants, up to 15 cm high, composed of flattened fronds with a typical branching pattern (figure 1), which makes the genus easily recognizable in the field.…”

“…Portieria typically forms bushy plants, up to 15 cm high, composed of flattened fronds with a typical branching pattern (figure 1), which makes the genus easily recognizable in the field. Like most red seaweeds, Portieria is characterized by a complex, triphasic life cycle, which includes two free-living stages of different ploidy levels-a diploid (tetrasporophyte) stage and a haploid (gametophyte) stage-as well as a diploid carposporophyte stage, which develops on the female gametophyte [38]. The genus is broadly distributed in the Indo-West Pacific and is common on coral reefs in the Philippines where it occurs from the shallow subtidal to 40 m depth.…”

Cryptic species diversity of ochtodenes-producing Portieria species (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) from the northwest Pacific

“…P. hornemannii, a currently accepted type species in the genus Portieria, is thought to have a broad distribution in Africa, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and Asia (Silva et al 1987, Yoshida 1998, Lee and Kang 2002, Guiry and Guiry 2018. Although recent morphological information including reproductive development have been supplemented earlier descriptions, the morphology of most Portieria species remains to be characterized in detail (Payo et al 2011). P. japonica, initially reported as Desmia japonica Harvey collected on rocks at low tide from Shimoda, Japan (Harvey 1860), has been demonstrated to have narrower distributions in the western Pacific, including Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam, as well as Oman in the Middle East (Silva et al 1987, Yoshida 1998, Lee 2008, Guiry and Guiry 2018.…”

“…P. japonica, initially reported as Desmia japonica Harvey collected on rocks at low tide from Shimoda, Japan (Harvey 1860), has been demonstrated to have narrower distributions in the western Pacific, including Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam, as well as Oman in the Middle East (Silva et al 1987, Yoshida 1998, Lee 2008, Guiry and Guiry 2018. Morphologically, P. hornemannii has branches that gradually narrow toward the apices, whereas P. japonica is distinguished by relatively broad branches with sawtooth margins (Yoshida 1998, Payo et al 2011. However, it is relatively difficult to discriminate between P. hornemannii and P. japonica based on morphological characterization alone (see Chondrococcus hornemannii and Chondrococcus japonica in Okamura 1922).…”

“…The remaining specimens from this study were scattered into four separate lineages (B-E). The specimens from Taiwan and some from Japan formed two distinct lineag- This is further complicated by a lack of detailed descriptions of the morphological, vegetative, and reproductive development characteristics of P. japonica in contrast to those of P. hornemannii (Payo et al 2011). After separating the specimens into lineage A-E based on the genetic evidence, the differences in thallus width between lineage A as P. japonica and other lineages corresponded well with the main diagnostic feature used to delimit P. japonica by Yoshida (1998).…”