- Reference
- Acta Univ.Lund. 48-49, fig 26 C-D, taf 8, fig 20 (1940)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus medium to dark brown, moderately mucoid, subdichotomously to laterally branched with branches usually at wide angles, 5–15 cm long with branches 0.5–1 mm in diameter, epiphytic on Sargassum and other larger algae. Medulla of a single axial filament, with the apical cell largely obscured by the young assimilatory filaments. Cortex 80–120 µm and 3–4 cells thick, with larger inner cells grading to smaller outer cells which bear the assimilatory filaments. Assimilatory filaments arising close to apices and forming a continuous layer over the branches, often denuded on older parts; filaments straight or curved, (80–)200–400 µm and (5–)10–16 cells long, cylindrical to slightly greater in diameter above, (10–)15–20 µm in diameter with cells L/B1.5–2(–2.5). Phaeoplasts irregularly discoid, several per cell, each with a pyrenoid; physodes scattered. Phaeophycean hairs arising from basal cells of assimilatory filaments or as a branch a few cells up, 8–12 µm in diameter. Growth of axial filament apical, of assimilatory filaments apical and intercalary.
Reproduction. Plurilocular sporangia uniseriate, borne on branched pedicels amongst assimilatory filaments, 20–40 µm and (4–)6–10 locules long, 4–6 µm in diameter, with some oblique cross walls. Unilocular sporangia unknown.
Distribution. In southern Australia, from Rottnest I., W. Aust., to Crawfish Rock, Westernport Bay, Vic.
[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia II: 130–132 (1987)]