- Reference
- Bot.Mar. 36:396 (1993)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus to 3.5 mm tall, sparingly branched. Prostrate axes 120–200 μm diam., attached by clusters of rhizoids 10–30 μm diam., arising from periaxial cells and cortical cells near nodes. Rhizoids unicellular or forming multicellular digitate pads at attachment points. Erect axes to 80–100 μm diam., tapering gradually to the straight apices. Axial cells with 4 periaxial cells, their position rotated 45° relative to those on subtending axial cells; each periaxial cell cutting off 2 acropetal and 2 basipetal initials. Acropetal initials forming a short filament; basipetal initials each producing one descending filament, this cutting off corticating cells that are transversely elongate; in surface view forming straight or sinuous longitudinal lines.
Reproduction. Tetrasporangia in whorls of 4, arising acropetally on periaxial cells and embedded in the cortex, spherical, 35–40 μm diam. (including wall), tetrahedrally divided.
Distribution. Known from warmer waters of the Indo-Pacific. In Australia, also reported from Queensland and Lord Howe Island.
Habitat. Epilithic in the subtidal.
[After J.M. Huisman in Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae: 409–411 (2018)]