by Michael Rasser

REPRODUCTION

Beside the vegetative anatomy, the chamber which bears the reproductive organs is another important feature: the so-called conceptacles.

Conceptacles may be:

Uniporate (one pore for spore release)
Multiporate (many pores)
Arranged in sori (many conceptacles arranged in one row)

Additionally, there are different kinds of formation of the conceptacles roof and arrangement of filaments around the conceptacle pores. The reproductive organs are formed by specialised filaments.

The life cycle in coralline algae is rather complicated (at least to me), containing sexual and asexual cycles. My other homepage gives a short introduction (don't miss D. Keats homepage).

Surface view of a thallus fragment, showing monoporate conceptacles of Hydrolithon onkodes from the Red Sea (Intervals in the upper left corner are 1 mm).

If you want to know more about this: visit my homepage about reproductive anatomy.