- Reference
- Dict.Univ.Hist.Nat. 2:661 (1842)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus prostrate, with regular alternate prostrate lateral branches, mat-forming, purple to brown; main axes indeterminate, 20–40 mm long, bearing simple determinate lateral branches 2–3 mm long; 2 tiers of pericentral cells per axial cell, with 6 (–8) pericentral cells per tier around the main axes, (4–) 5 pericentral cells per tier in fertile branches and 4 pericentral cells per tier in sterile branches; corticated or ecorticate throughout; polysiphonous throughout, attached by peripherohaptera associated with bifurcations of indeterminate axes. Indeterminate axes 90–200 µm diam.; cortical cells rare, not forming a layer; branches arising subdichotomously at intervals of more than 10 axial cells; determinate branches arising laterally at intervals of 1 (–2) axial cells. Procarps borne near apices of determinate branches, the fertile region 3–6 cells long with 1 (–2) procarps per axial cell.
Reproduction. Cystocarps subapical, ovoid to globular, 500–600 µm long, 400–500 µm diam. Spermatangial branches 200–600 µm long, 65–75 µm diam.; axial cells below the fertile region with (4–) 5 pericentral cells per tier. Tetrasporangial stichidia subapical on lateral branches, 450–1300 µm and 5–13 (–20) axial cells long, 180–200 µm diam.; fertile segments each with 4 pericentral cells, each of which giving rise to a tetrasporangium 50–60 µm diam. and 3 cover cells.
Distribution. Recorded from north-western Australia to north-eastern Queensland; also Okinawa, southern Japan, Central and South America, Africa and South East Asia.
Habitat. Epiphytic on mangrove trunks, prop roots and pneumatophores, also epilithic, in tidal inlets and creeks.
[After J.M. Huisman in Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae: 488 (2018)]