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Service Notice

The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

The notice period started at 9:45 am on Friday, 12 December 2025 +08:00 and will end at 12:00 pm on Monday, 2 March 2026 +08:00.

Ulva prolifera O.F.Müll.

Reference
Fl.Dan. 5:7, Pl. 763, Fig. 1 (1778)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus light to medium green, erect from a small holdfast and often flaccid, terete or compressed, mostly 5–15 cm high and 0.5–2 cm broad, usually with frequent, proliferous branches but sometimes almost simple. Cells usually arranged in longitudinal rows, often partly disrupted above, and to some extent in transverse rows, typically angular and four sided in upper thallus, 10–14(–16) µm long and 8–12(–14) µm broad, more rounded and larger in the stipe (to 25 µm long); chloroplast occupying most of the cell, with a single, relatively large pyrenoid occupying 20–60% of the cell width.

Reproduction. Generations isomorphic, gametophytes dioecious, anisogamous.

Distribution. Widely distributed in temperate seas.

[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia I: 156–157 (1984), as Enteromorpha prolifera]

John Huisman & Cheryl Parker, 3 August 2021

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Esperance Plains, Swan Coastal Plain, Warren.
IBRA Subregions
Perth, Recherche, Warren.
IMCRA Regions
Leeuwin-Naturaliste.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Augusta Margaret River, Broome, Claremont, Esperance, Fremantle, Perth, South Perth.