Nitophyllum wysorii (S. M. Lin)
(Rhodophyta:Ceramiales:Delesseriaceae)
This is one of what will likely be a number of newly described species from my 1999 Panama algal collection. This one was described by Dr. Showe Mei Lin, who just completed her dissertation studies in this lab on the systematics of the Delesseriaceae. Dr. Lin described a number of new species and often recognized the collector in designating a species name.
N. wysorii is a relatively small, but noticeable, red alga. As you can see there is a blade that sits atop a stipe that may or may not be branched and which joins the blade at it's center. If you look closely at the margins, you'll see some mottling in the colors. The color here is a little faded (this is a scan of herbarium material), but still pretty well preserved. When fresh the mottling will appear somewhat gold and irradescent on a darker red back ground. Underwater it looks very "frilly" (much like the back of a sea slug, if you ask me, which is why I've dubbed it 'N. nudibranchous'). I found this growing on hard substrate that was buried beneath the fine sediment on the sand plain at Galeta Point, Colon, The Republic of Panama, between 12 and 15m.