Ectocarpales is a very large
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
...
in the
brown algae
Brown algae (: alga) are a large group of multicellular algae comprising the class (biology), class Phaeophyceae. They include many seaweeds located in colder waters of the Northern Hemisphere. Brown algae are the major seaweeds of the temperate ...
(class Phaeophyceae). The order includes families with
pseudoparenchyma
This glossary of mycology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to mycology, the study of fungi. Terms in common with other fields, if repeated here, generally focus on their mycology-specific meaning. Related terms can be found ...
tous (
Splachnidiaceae) or true
parenchyma
upright=1.6, Lung parenchyma showing damage due to large subpleural bullae.
Parenchyma () is the bulk of functional substance in an animal organ such as the brain or lungs, or a structure such as a tumour. In zoology, it is the tissue that ...
tous (
Scytosiphonaceae) tissue. Pseudoparenchymatous refers to a filamentous alga with cells packed very close together to give an appearance of parenchymatous tissue, the latter being composed of cells which can truly divide in three dimensions, unusual among the
algae
Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...
. Filamentous algae are composed of cells that divide along a single plane, allowing only elongation to form filaments of one or more rows of cells. Algae that can divide in two planes can form sheet-like
thalli
Thallus (: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. A thallus usually names the entir ...
or bodies. Cells that can divide in a third plane potentially allow for the organism to develop a more complex body plan, and diversification of body plans into an erect thallus of some sort and a
holdfast for attaching the upright portion to the substrate.
A 2014 classification recognizes the following families:
*
Acinetosporaceae
Acinetosporaceae is a family of brown algae in the order Ectocarpales
Ectocarpales is a very large order (biology), order in the brown algae (class Phaeophyceae). The order includes families with pseudoparenchymatous (Splachnidiaceae) or true ...
Hamel ex J Feldmann
*
Adenocystaceae F Rousseau, B. de Reviers, M.-C. Leclerc, A Asensi, and R Delépine
*
Chordariaceae
Chordariaceae is a family (biology), family of brown algae. Members of this family are may be filamentous, crustose with fused cells at the base, or they may be terete and differentiated into a central Medulla (lichenology), medulla and an outer ...
Greville
*
Ectocarpaceae C Agardh
*
Petrospongiaceae Racault et al.
*
Scytosiphonaceae Farlow
References
Further reading
Brown algae orders
{{Phaeophyceae-stub