- Reference
- Phycologia 7-9; figs 15-24 (1984)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus erect, mucilaginous, compressed and cleft into lobes 1–2 cm long, 4–9 mm broad and 3–5 mm thick, with rounded margins. Holdfast discoid; epilithic. Structure of a cortex of fascicles of simple (basally branched) filaments 20–35 cells and 700–1000 µm long, 4–6 µm in diameter with cells L/D 3–6(–8), protruding beyond shorter cortical systems 5–12 cells and 100–200 µm long, and a broad, laxly filamentous, medulla. Rhodoplasts several per cell, discoid.
Reproduction. Sexual thalli monoecious. Carpogonial branches 3-celled, borne on inner cells of cortical system. Auxiliary cells intercalary in nearby inner cortical systems, with 1–3-celled chains of nutritive cellules on the adjacent cells. Gonimoblast initial developing on connecting filament adjacent to auxiliary cell, carposporophyte obovoid, 70–75 µm long and 50–60 µm in diameter, consisting of 1–3 gonimolobes of subspherical carposporangia, each 8–10 µm in diameter. Spermatangia on short, distichous branches at ends of short cortical systems, 2–3 µm in diameter. Tetrasporophytes unknown.
Distribution.Only known from Rottnest I., W. Aust., and Pearson I., S. Aust., 12 m deep.
[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia IIIA: 274 (1994)]