Liagora izziae Huisman

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus to 8 cm high, deep red to pink, mucilaginous, lightly calcified (calcification farinose), irregularly branched, with numerous short lateral branches. Axes to 1.0 mm in diameter near base, tapering to 0.3–0.5 mm in diameter at apices. Medullary filaments 15–40 µm in diameter. Assimilatory filaments 300–400 µm long, sparingly dichotomously branched, mostly near periphery; lower cells 7–9 µm in diameter, tapering to 4–5 µm in diameter near periphery.

Reproduction. Apparently dioecious. Spermatangia unknown. Carpogonial branches 4–6-celled, curved, on the medial region of a mid-cortical cell. Involucral filaments mostly unbranched and more slender than the assimilatory filaments; cells elliptical or subcylindrical. Gonimoblast hemispherical, 150–200 µm in diameter; fusion cell composed of the carpogonial branch and lower cells of the gonimoblast. Carposporangia terminal on gonimoblast filaments, c. 7 × 5 µm.

Distribution. Known only from Rottnest I., W. Aust. and Lord Howe I. in the south-western Pacific Ocean.

Habitat. L. izziae grows in the subtidal in areas of high water movement.