Chondria armata (Kütz.) Okamura

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus erect, to 6.5 cm tall, pale red when living but drying dark red, with several percurrent axes arising from a common holdfast. Axes terete, to 1.5 mm diam. near base, tapering gradually to upper branches 350–600 µm diam., then to a fine point with a prominent apical cell. Branching alternate to plumose, more dense distally. Trichoblasts prominent near apices, to 1.1 mm long, dichotomously divided. Structure with a prominent central axis, surrounded by pericentral cells 90–100 µm diam.; outer cortical cells longitudinally elongate in surface view, 35–85 µm long, 8–15 µm diam.

Reproduction. Reproductive structures not observed.

Distribution. Widespread in warmer waters of the Indo-Pacific; in north-western Australia south to Coral Bay.

Habitat. Epilithic in the intertidal and shallow subtidal.

[After J.M. Huisman in Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae: 493–494 (2018)]