Rhipidosiphon javensis Mont.

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus to 2 cm tall, with flabellate or cuneate blades borne on a monosiphonus stipe attached to the substratum by branched lobed rhizoids. Attachment rhizoids digitate, irregularly swollen, 25–60 μm diam. Stipe to 1.8 mm long, 80–100 µm diam., grading abruptly into a blade formed from dichotomously branched siphons with fused calcified cell walls 10–15 μm thick; blade siphons 35–45 µm diam. at the upper margin, 85–110 µm diam. near the base, the filaments unequally constricted above each dichotomy.

Distribution. Occurs in tropical waters of the eastern Indian Ocean and in the western and central Pacific, including Qld. In W.A. as far south as Barrow Island.

Habitat. Grows on intertidal rock walls and a shallow subtidal coral reef.

[After Huisman, Algae of Australia: Mar. Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 1. Green and Brown Algae 147 (2015)]