Red algae phylum - stone cauliflower
Stone cauliflower ( scientific name : Gelidium amansii Lamouroux ) is an algae of the genus Lithophyllaceae in the family Lithocarpus. The algae are purple-red or brownish-red, flat and erect, and the clusters form pinnate branches, and the small branches are opposite or alternate, and the ends of each branch are sharply pointed, generally 10-30 cm tall. Single-axis type. There are many rhizomatosis between cortical cells. Tetrasporangia are formed by terminal branches and split in a cross-shaped shape. The sperm sac and fruit cells are also formed from the stubs, and the cysts are prominent on both sides, each with a small hole. The fruit sporangia are long stick-shaped. It is a common species in the Yellow Sea, Bohai Sea and East China Sea. For consumption, it is also the main raw material for extracting agar gum.
Stone cauliflower is a type of red algae that can be seen in all major areas of China. Stone broccoli grows upright, has many branches, and is generally 20 to 30 cm long. Stone cauliflower grows on reefs in shallow waters, and the colors are purple red, brownish red, light yellow, etc., because they are shaped like corals, so they are also called grass corals. In addition, there are many other names for stone cauliflower, in the coastal areas of the Bohai Sea, stone cauliflower is called cow maolai, frozen vegetables, in fujian areas is referred to as "stone flower" or "red silk". When you hear these names, know that all it says is stone cauliflower. Whenever the sea is low, the stone cauliflower exposed to the water looks like a bouquet of purple coral flowers from a distance, swaying with the tide, which is very beautiful.
The distribution of stone cauliflower is very wide, and it belongs to the world's red algae. China's coastal stone cauliflower resources are very rich, from the Liaodong Peninsula in the north to the coast of Taiwan in the south. However, most of them are still distributed along the coast of The Shandong Peninsula and Taiwan. There are more than a dozen kinds of stone cauliflower produced in China, and different species grow in different seas.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >1. morphological characteristics</h1>
Cauliflower is purple, crimson or purple in color, and tends to be pale yellow in light-receiving areas. Fresh cauliflower algae are erect clumps, pinnate branches alternate or opposite, and the branches are flattened or subclinical. There are many branches of the algae, the main branch grows side branches, the side branches grow small branches, the end tips of various branches, and the branches are 0.5 to 2 mm wide. The upper part of the whole algae is densely branched, and the lower part of the branch is slightly sparse. The holder is pseudo-root-shaped, and the false root is generally black. The size of the algae varies greatly depending on the type and living environment, the small one is only 1 to 1.5 cm or 2 to 4 cm, generally 10 to 20 cm, and the large one can reach 30 to 40 cm.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" >2</h1>
The surface is covered with a thick film, and there are pigment bodies inside the cells, which is the epidermal layer, which is the main place for photosynthesis.
At the young age of the algae of the stone cauliflower, it is clear that there is a central axis from which the medulla cells branch out. Therefore, cauliflower belongs to the algae of the central axial organization, the medulla is long and columnar, there are quite a lot of gaps between the cells, and the gaps are full of colloids, thus forming a tight tissue, and the agar gum in the body is stored in the medulla. There are countless fibrous cells in the medulla of the old adult algae that run longitudinally through the colloid, increasing the firmness of the stone cauliflower tissue.
The growth of stone broccoli belongs to the apex growth, and at the top of each of its branches, there is an apical cell. The growth of the tapering is carried out through the division and differentiation of apical cells. Apical cells first divide into axial filament cells, while one or two cells after the apical cells, they divide to produce 4 perixial cells. These pericopal cells are arranged squarely around the mother cell, and after continuous division and differentiation to form the cortex and medulla tissue, the cortex at the base of the algae re-divides to form a false root, and the false root filament is parallel to the central shaft filament.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" >3</h1>
Stone cauliflower grows on coral reefs in the sea, and it prefers to grow in waters with clean water, smooth flow and high salinity, mostly purple or dark red. Stone broccoli is transparent throughout, grows like a small tree, and has many irregular branches. Stone cauliflower is also figuratively known as chicken foot vegetable and staghorn because of its appearance.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" >4</h1>
The distribution of stone cauliflower is very wide, and it belongs to the world's red algae. It is found in the Pacific coast of the United States, Mexico, Chile, Japan and North Korea. It is also found in Spain, Portugal, France and Denmark along the Atlantic coast. In addition, Brazil and Argentina in the Americas. It is also found in Madagascar and South Africa in Africa. However, in terms of overall distribution, the distribution of the Pacific coast and its nearby islands is larger.
From the vertical distribution point of view, stone cauliflower shoulders to the yin-loving plant. It generally grows on seafloor rocks below the great dry tidal line to within 10 meters of water depth. However, some species can be more distributed.
China's coastal stone cauliflower resources are also abundant. It is found from the Liaodong Peninsula in the north to the coast of Taiwan in the south. It is mainly distributed in Shandong Peninsula and Taiwan Province.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" >5</h1>
The reproduction of cauliflower is divided into two kinds: sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction is carried out by the production of tetraspores through the production of tetraspores by the maturation of the male and female gametophytes, the fertilization of the fruit sporozoites to form the fruit sporozoites, and the fruit sporophytes after maturity; asexual reproduction is carried out through the tetraspores producing tetraspores. These two forms of reproduction are ultimately carried out by spores, so they are called spore reproduction, in addition, stone broccoli can also carry out special vegetative reproduction, divided into three forms: creeping branch reproduction, false root reproduction and algae regeneration.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" >(1) spore propagation</h1>
In the life history of stone cauliflower, in addition to the sporophyte generation and the gametophyte generation, there are also fruit sporophyte generations. However, the fruit sporophytes cannot exist alone, but can only form, grow and develop on the female gametophytes. In the non-breeding season, it is not easy to distinguish between the hermaphrodites and tetrasporids, and the three algae we usually see have all three kinds of algae, and only in the breeding season, the reproductive organs on the algae can be distinguished.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" >(1) hermaphroditonic gametosites</h1>
Male gametoplasts: After the male gametophytes mature, oval sperm sacs are born at the top of the flat sperm sygs, which are transformed from algal surface cells into sperm sac parent cells, and sperm sac parent cells are formed by division. Each sperm sac mother cell produces two sperm sacs. The sperm is five-colored round, has no flagella, cannot swim, and relies on the flow of seawater to be carried to the fertilization filament of the female gametophytes.
Female gametophytes: When the female gametophytes are nearly mature, they should grow fruit cell twigs that specifically produce fruit spores, which are produced by the small branches at the top of the main branch, and a few are directly formed at the top of the main branch. When ripe, the two sides of the spindle cell of the fruit cell twigs are divided into peridot cells, and the support cells and fruit cytoblasts are produced by the third or fourth row of the perimeter fine roar, and the fruitblasts (the cells above the apex) are transformed into fruit cells by metamorphosis. The fruit cells have a rod-like fertilized filament protruding from the surface of the algae, while underneath the fruit cells is a support cell. Thus, fruit cell branches are made up of individual cells. During the development of fruit cell branches, the base of the second row of peripheral cells produces several rows of small cells, and each cell is rich in protoplasm, called vegetative cells or trophoblasts, whose role is to provide nutrients for the development of cysts.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" >(2) fruit spore</h1>
After the formation of the fruit cells, touching the sperm, the sperm adheres to the fertilization filament, and its contact melts, and the sperm nucleus enters the base of the fruit cell along the fertilized filament, and combines with the egg nucleus to form a zygote, and the zygote does not leave the mother. After fertilization, the fruit cells fuse with the support cells below, forming large fusion cells. Fusion cells produce many branches of spore-producing filaments that absorb nutrients between cells that penetrate human vegetative tissue. Mature spore-producing filaments, the terminal cells elongate, and divide into sporangia. At the same time as fusing cytogenesis to produce spores, the cortex on the outside of the spore-producing filaments further develops and rises, forming a bulking part of the algae body, called the fruit sporophyte or cystic fruit. On the cross-sectional view, most of the puff is two small chambers that are not completely separated, and there is a hole in the roof of the chamber that communicates with the outside world, which is called the cystic fruit hole, and the mature fruit spores are excreted from the cystic fruit hole. After the fruit spores are discharged, they drift with the water, touch the suitable substrate, and then attach to germinate into tetrasporids.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" >(3)tetrasporids</h1>
After the tetrasporidium matures, it forms a large, ovate tetracysporangium branch at the tip of its branch, which is formed by the surface cells of the small branch. At maturity, as neighboring vegetative cells grow upwards, the result is that tetracysporangia are gradually buried in algal cells. Each tetrasporangial sac mother cell undergoes meiosis to form 4 tetraspores, which are arranged in a "ten" shape in tetramyspora. After the tetracysporangia mature, small spots that appear as purple-red from the surface of the algae, protrude slightly, and line along the flat side of the twigs.
After the tetraspores mature, the walls of the sporangium rupture, and the spores in them are released in the seawater, and when they touch the suitable substrate, they attach to them, forming male and female gametophytes.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" >(4) scattering and attachment of spores</h1>
Tetracysporangia remain spherical after discharge, staying at the discharge port for a while before they begin to rise away from the mother. It can be seen that the discharge mode of tetraspores of stone broccoli is to first discharge tetrasporangia. After some time, the crack in the tetracysporum suddenly cracks, and the tetraspores are released and spread out in all directions, and the distance between them is getting larger and larger, and then slowly sinking. The newly separated tetraspores are long conical, long ovate or irregularly long conical.
After the stone cauliflower tetraspores and cysts ripen, tetraspores and fruit spores are naturally discharged, but their release amount varies greatly. It has been observed that during the time of concentrated spore release, tetraspores and fruit spores can release 10,000 and 10 spores per gram per hour per gram of sporangia.
Most of the spores attach within a few minutes after release. If the spores are released and the growth base is not encountered for a long time (more than 3 hours), the adhesion is lost, and the growth base is encountered later, and the spores will not adhere. In natural marine areas, most of the spores attach to the mother, and due to the activity of seawater, spores that are brought to other places may lose their attachment ability due to too long release time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="34" >(5) spore germination and seedling growth</h1>
Tetraspores or fruit spores are germinated after attachment. Their germination and growth process are the same, and their size and form are also the same. It is spherical amoeba-like, 27.8 to 36.7 microns in diameter, average 32 microns, with a central nucleus, thick protoplasm around the nucleus, and pigment bodies scattered in the spores. At the time of germination, the pigment granules first become dispersed, and at the same time, on the outside of the cell, a transparent and expanded protrusion is produced, which is called the germination tube. Subsequently, the spore contents are moved into the germination tube, and the prospore empty sac remains at one end. About 2 hours after spore germination, a diaphragm is formed between the germination tube and the spores. The cells produced after spore germination are called basic cells, which are oblong or oblong-ovate, with a central nucleus, and the pigment bodies are slightly reticulated and unevenly distributed within the cells. This specific form of the basic cell is of great significance for later division. When the spores divide, they first divide into 2 cells, one is a spindle-shaped small cell with a tip at both ends, and the other is a large cell with a circle at both ends and a slightly narrower middle. In general, small cells are on the upper side and large cells cling to the prospore shell.
Later, the two cells produced by each division divide in a transverse direction, while producing a transparent cell with almost no pigment at the top of the large cell. This cell elongates towards the anterior end, forming the initial false root, and then the germinating young cells continue to undergo irregular vertical and horizontal division. After the germination tube protrudes for 20 to 25 hours, the number of cells increases to 20 to 30, and its length is about 50 microns or so after removing the nascent false root and the empty shell of the prospore. After the germination tube protrudes 70 to 80 hours, a transparent growth point cell appears at the opposite end of the false root.
After the first false root grows from the large cell, the second false root is usually born from the small cell, but sometimes the growth order is reversed, and the first false root grows from the small cell first.
After 5 to 6 days of culture, the growth point began to divide, the growth accelerated, and the boundary between the original two cell division areas gradually became less obvious. The shell of the prospore gradually blurs or disappears, at this time the larvae are about 60 microns long and the primary false roots are about 120 microns long. After 10 days of cultivation, the average length of seedlings is about 100 microns, and the maximum length of the primary false roots is about 180 microns, and from then on, the initial false roots begin to shrink. After 15 days, the average seedling length is about 140 microns. At 21 days, the seedlings can grow up to about 800 microns, the lateral false roots begin to appear in the east, the basal part of the twigs, and the primary false roots continue to shrink. After 31 days of incubation, the seedlings were up to 1 mm long, and some could reach 2 mm, and all the primary false roots had shrunk, but some had regenerated secondary false root bundles, and the lateral false root bundles increased. After 35 days, the seedlings grow by 1 to 2 mm; most seedlings regenerate secondary false root bundles and become the main roots. After 41 days, the seedlings were up to 2 mm long and all re-produced secondary false root bundles; the lateral false root bundles increased to 5 to 6 or more bundles per seedling to become creeping seedlings. After going to the sea for another month, the creeping seedlings can grow into stone cauliflower seedlings.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="39" >(2) vegetative reproduction</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="40" > (1) creeping branches propagate</h1>
After the larvae of the stone cauliflower have grown to a certain size, they grow creeping branches from the base in a horizontal direction, and the creeping branches continue to spread and grow. The creeping branches produce false roots downwards and attach to the substrate, growing straight upwards. In this way, the number of straight-dimensional seedlings is continuously increased, and many straight-dimensional seedlings are formed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" >(2) pseudoroproptory propagation</h1>
After the root tip of the stone cauliflower is removed and cultivated for a period of time, the root tip can regenerate creeping branches and straight three-dimensional, and grow into independent new individuals. Stone cauliflower, which grows in natural sea areas, is often swept down from the rocks on the seabed by wind and waves, or harvested by people. However, the false roots of stone cauliflower are easily broken and remain on the rocks that originally grew, and these residual false roots on the rocks are often able to form new individuals. False root propagation of stone cauliflower is a breeding method of great significance to the cultivation of stone cauliflower, using this reproductive habit of stone cauliflower, we can directly harvest the large individual stone cauliflower on the rope after the end of the spores culture of the stone cauliflower, and leave the false roots on it, so that these false roots can grow back into new seedlings and continue to grow.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="44" > (3) Propagation of vegetative branches</h1>
If the branches or main branches of the stone cauliflower are removed, the incisions that remain on the rock can still emit new shoots and continue to grow to form a complete individual. If the excised branch is clipped to the seedling rope, it will continue to grow vegetatively. The branching raft breeding technology of stone cauliflower is to use the characteristics of branches to grow out of the body, harvest stone cauliflower from the natural sea area as a planting dish, and then split the branches and clip them on the seedling rope for cultivation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" >6</h1>
Stone cauliflower seedlings are mainly cultivated by artificial spore collection in the sea area or after a short period of indoor cultivation. The structure of the nursery room is the same as that of the wakame nursery. The nursery is a 30 cm long and 20 cm wide seedling curtain made of vinylene rope or a blend of vinylene and polyethylene. The appropriate time for spore collection is from July to August, and the seed algae with a large number of tetrasporospores and cysts and good ripeness are selected and stimulated by shady drying, sprinkled on the nursery in the seedling pond, and clean seawater is added to soak the seed algae. After 10 hours, when a large number of red spots appear on the nursery, it can end the release and move to the sea area or indoor nursery pond to continue the culture.
The management work during indoor cultivation mainly includes controlling light and adjusting water temperature. The management of seedlings in the marine area includes: regulating the water layer, removing the curtain for cultivation, washing the floating mud and removing weeds. When the seedlings are more than 5 cm long, they can be cultivated in separate seedlings.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="49" >7</h1>
Cauliflower contains agarose, agar gum, taurine, N,N-dimethyltaurine, 24-methylenechosterol, choline, vitamin B2 and antiviral polysaccharides.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="51" >8</h1>
Stone cauliflower can be used medicinally or eaten. It tastes crisp and tender, and can be mixed with cold vegetables and made into cold powder. Stone broccoli should not be boiled for a long time, otherwise it will melt away. Cauliflower is also the main raw material for refining agar. Agar, also known as watercress, foreign flour, stone flower gum, is an important plant glue, belongs to the fiber food, can be dissolved in hot water. Agar can be used to make cold food, jelly or microbial medium. Cauliflower is rich in inorganic salts and multivitamins.
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