Schmitzia hiscockiana

Schmitzia hiscockiana Maggs and Guiry. This is a small rare red seaweed of the Rhodophyta discovered for the first time in the world and named for in 1985. Introduction: •	A small red marine algae found at about 10 sites in Northern Ireland.

•	Known only from the sublittoral to 15m depth. On cobbles and pebbles.

•	The gametophyte plants are between April and August and crustose phase from September to December.

Species description: The gametophyte phase is a soft and gelatinous plant, no more than 8 cm long, 6 cm wide and a few millimeters 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 branchlets 4 or 5 per axial cell. These whorls of branchlets 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.

Similar species. Other species of Schmitzia are distinct. S. neapolitana from the North Atlantic and Mediterranean are always terete. S. hiscockiana is easily recognizable, it more closely resembles S. evanescens (New Zealand) and S. japonica (Japan and Australia).