Gibsmithia hawaiiensis gen. n. et sp. n.

Abstract

A new genus , Gibsmithia, is described and tentatively placed in the Dumontiaceae of the red algal order Cryptonemiales. Its diagnostic features are: possession of auxiliary cells in specialized filaments separate from those bearing the carpogonia; the known sexual structures occurring in sori at the tips of soft, gelatinous branches which arise from perennial round stems so as to form a hemispherical head; cruciate tetraspores borne on filaments protruding from the surface of the branches and these same branch filaments often bearing terminal seirospores. The type species of the genus is G. hawaiiensis, known only from the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands.