- Reference
- Mar.Benth.Fl.S.Australia 179 (1998)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus with prostrate and erect axes 1–2.5 cm high, each axial cell bearing (2–)3(–5) whorl-branchlets, often unilaterally placed with 1 long branchlet and 2 or 3 equal short branchlets, occasionally with other combinations; the lowest whorl on a lateral branch often consists of 4 short branchlets only. Attachment by rhizoids of elongate cells borne on basal cells of whorl-branchlets on prostrate axes, with digitate haptera; epiphytic. Structure. Apical cells 5–7 µm in diameter and L/D 1–1.2, with chains of 6–12 small cells, enlarging to axial cells 70–160 µm in diameter and L/D 1.5–2.5(–3), with the long whorl-branchlets upwardly curved and slightly overlapping. Long whorl-branchlets 400–700 µm and 8–11 cells long, with opposite or slightly more abaxial branches, sometimes further branched; short whorl-branchlets 40–100 µm and 3–6 cells long, branched one to several times; basal rachis cells usually unbranched (unless the long branchlet is developing further), 10–16 µm in diameter and L/D (1.5–)2–3, tapering to single or paired terminal cells 4–8 µm in diameter and L/D 1–2, often with a hair; gland cells occur on the basal or second cells of short whorl-branchlets or on laterals of long whorl-branchlets, cut off when the bearing cell is subterminal and touching both it and abutting the next outer cell of a dichotomy with 1–3 cells above the gland cells, ovoid, 10–15 µm in diameter. Lateral branches arising on basal cells of whorl-branchlets. Cells uninucleate; rhodoplasts discoid to elongate in smaller cells, becoming ribbon like in larger cells.
Reproduction. Carpogonial branches occur on the basal cell of 2-celled whorl-branchlets near the branch apices, with the terminal cell remaining as a small sterile cell on the supporting cell. Post-fertilization 4–6 rounded gonimolobes 90–180 µm across develop, with ovoid carposporangia 16–22 µm in diameter; 2–4 long whorl-branchlets from the lower axial cell envelop the carposporophyte. Spermatangia unknown. Tetrasporangia occur on lower cells of rachides or on branches of both long and short whorl-branchlets, ovoid, sessile, 20–30 µm in diameter, tetrahedrally to sub-decussately divided.
Distribution.King George Sound, W. Aust., to Apollo Bay, Vic. Lord Howe I. ?.
[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia IIIC: 179–182 (1998)]