Asparagopsis armata
Descrição:
Alga vermelha que tem a particularidade de possuir ramos modificados em espinhos
(daí a designação específica). Nos Açores
as plantas atingem 15cm de comprimento total e são muito abundantes na
zona submersa, podendo subir até ao limite inferior da zona das marés.
Amplamente distribuída no Atlântico.
Durante o seu ciclo de vida apresenta duas fases com morfologias distintas.
De tal forma estas fases são diferentes, que chegaram a ser identificadas
como duas espécies distintas e a possuir nomes científicos distintos
(tetraesporófito = Falkenbergia rufolanosa).
Gametophyte plants
occurring from June or July - August or September (sometimes overwintering),
pale purplish-red, quickly degenerating when removed from the water and becoming
distinctly orange; fronds bushy, with a cylindrical axis to1 mm wide and 200
mm long, arising from bare, creeping stolons; irregularly branched, with 4 rows
of branchlets, simple, short, branchlets alternating with longer ones with 4
rows of simple filamentous ramuli. Lower branchlets unbranched, long, tapered,
with harpoon-like barbs.
Key characteristics: The harpoon-like hooks and bushy habit
are unmistakable; association with Ulva species.
(In: Seaweed Site - ©Michael D. Guiry - http://seaweed.ucg.ie/descriptions/Asparm.html)
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Tetrasporophyte
(Falkenbergia-phase) occurring all year round, but most obvious in October-March,
brownish-red, much branched, filamentous, in dense cotton-wool-like tufts to
15 mm in diameter.
O tetraesporófito distingue-se do gametófito por ter uma forma
de pom-pons amarelo-avermelhados.
(In: Seaweed Site - http://seaweed.ucg.ie/descriptions/Asparm.html)
Habitat:
Both phases readily reproduce vegetatively. Drift specimens of gametophyte readily
attach to other algae by barbed branchlets, and produce new shoots. Introduced
from the Southern Hemisphere, the gametophyte was first recorded in Europe in
1925 (Cherbourg and Biarritz), arriving in the British Isles at Galway in 1941,
and is now well established in open sandy pools of lower intertidal and subtidal,
on rock or epiphytic (mainly on Ulva spp.)in the Channel Is, S England
(Swanage to Scilly Is.) and S and W Ireland (Carnsore Pt, Co. Wexford; Magharees
Lagoon, Co. Kerry; and from Finavarra, Co. Clare north to Clare I., Co. Mayo).
Tetrasporophytes (Falkenbergia -phase) are epiphytic, especially on Corallina
officinalis, in similar habitats to gametophyte, but more widely distributed
on western and southern coast N to Shetland Is.
Similar species:
Bonnemaisonia
hamifera occurs in similar habitats but
has crozier-shaped attachment branchlets rather than recurved barbs.
(In: Seaweed Site - http://seaweed.ucg.ie/descriptions/Asparm.html)
