- Reference
- Acta Univ.Lund. Index p. 1 (1896)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus light to medium red, with branched prostrate axes bearing erect branched fronds 1–3 cm high, axes with distichous pairs of opposite pinnate pinnae, lying in the same plane or divergent from it (probably depending on crowding). Attachment by branched rhizoidal clumps from basal pinna cells. Structure. Apical cells small, enlarging to 130–250 µm in diameter and L/D 1.2–1.5 in lower axes. Pinnae closely and complanately branched, lying in the plane of thallus branching or twisted from this by crowding, with alternate, simple or once branched pinnules; rachis cells 45–75 µm in diameter and L/D 0.6–1.2, slightly flexuous, tapering over subterminal cells to 20–25 µm in diameter and L/D 0.5–1, terminal cells pointed; pinnule cells 35–45 µm in diameter and L/D 0.8–1.2, tapering over last few cells to pointed terminal cells; gland cells on short 3–4-celled branches on the pinnules, ovoid, covering 2–3 cells and 25–45 µm in diameter. Lateral branches probably arising from basal cells of pinnae. Cells uninucleate; rhodoplasts discoid.
Reproduction. Gametophytes unknown. Tetrasporangia on lower pinnule cells, sessile, ovoid, 40–50 µm in diameter, decussately divided.
Distribution. Rottnest I., W. Aust., to Warrnambool, Vic.
Habitat. Epiphytic on various algae.
[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia IIIC: 105–106 (1998)]
Distribution
- IMCRA Regions
- Leeuwin-Naturaliste.