Schmitzia
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Schmitzia hiscockiana Maggs and Guiry This is a small rare red seaweed discovered for the first time in the world and named in 1985.
Species description: The gametophyte phase is a soft and gelatinous plant, no more than 8 cms long, 6 cm wide and a few mm thick. It is flattened and divided in a leaf-like manner with marginal proliferations. Rose pink in colour, blades composed of a filamentous axis bearing whorls of 4 or 5 whorl branchlets per axial cell. These whorl branchlets branch to form a cortex.
Life cycle. The plants are monoecious bearing spermatia and carpogonia, after fertilization and development of connecting filaments and fusion with intercalary vegetative cells a carposporphyte develops. The tetrasporophyte phase is crustose and unknown in the wild. It is bright red and grows to 6 mm in diameter and composed of a single basal layer of cells which produce erect filaments some of which produce tetraspores. These tetraspores develop and grow to give rise to the gametophyte generations.
References: Maggs, C.A. and Guiry, M.D. 1985. Life history and reproduction of Schmitzia hiscockiana sp.nov. (Rhodophyta, Gigartinales) from the British Isles. Phycologia 24: 297 – 310.
