Skip to main content

Caulerpa trifaria Harv.

Reference
Phycol.Austral. pl. CCLXI (1863)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current
Image

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Stolon usually moderately slender, 0.7–1.5 mm in diameter, bearing scattered, short spines about 0.5 mm long, epilithic, on jetty piles or in sandy mud substrate. Erect fronds medium green, with simple or occasionally branched axes, usually 5–25 cm high and 4–12 mm across; axes terete, 400–600(–700) µm in diameter, with short spinous ramuli near their base, above bearing 3 (2 when juvenile or rarely on mature fronds) regular rows of slender, terete ramuli. Ramuli separated by less than their basal width, 3–5(–9) mm long and 200–300 µm in diameter, terete, with a slight to moderate upward curve, tapering close to their apices to a short spinous tip.

Distribution. From Cottesloe, W. Aust., to Western Port, Vic., and around Tas.

Habitat. Usually confined to moderately sheltered to calm water, 2–31 m deep.

[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia I: 264 (1984)]

John Huisman & Cheryl Parker, 3 August 2021

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Esperance Plains, Swan Coastal Plain.
IBRA Subregions
Perth, Recherche.
IMCRA Regions
Central West Coast, Leeuwin-Naturaliste.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Cottesloe, Esperance, Joondalup, Rockingham.