- Reference
- Austral.J.Bot. 557 (1987)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus red-brown, slender, 2–4 cm high, irregularly branched, branches basally constricted, 2–5 mm long and 0.5–1 mm in diameter, apices rounded and slightly depressed. Holdfast discoid, 0.5–1 mm across; epiphytic on Posidonia sinuosa and Dilophus. Structure. Apical filament short, bearing trichoblasts. Pericentral cells 5, lengthening rapidly to form the broad branch apex, 20–40(–100) µm in diameter and L/D (2–)10–12, cortex 1(–2) cells thick, outer cells ovoid to elongate, 20–35 µm in diameter and L/D 1–2(–5), in longitudinal lines. Older axes with moderately abundant rhizoids between the pericentral cells, cut off from these cells and their derivatives. Trichoblasts 300–700 µm long. Cells probably uninucleate; rhodoplasts discoid, chained in larger cells.
Reproduction. Procarps not observed. Carposporophytes with a small basal fusion cell and branched gonimoblast with clavate terminal carposporangia 40–120 µm in diameter. Cystocarps ovoid, short-stalked, 1–1.5 mm in diameter; pericarp with a broad ostiole, ecorticate, 2(–3) cells thick. Spermatangial plates not observed. Tetrasporangia borne on pericentral cells or their derivatives, one to few per whorl, 50–100 µm in diameter.
Distribution.King George Sound, W. Aust., to Tiparra Reef, S. Aust.
[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia IIID: 413–415 (2003)]
Distribution
- IMCRA Regions
- Leeuwin-Naturaliste.