- Reference
- Sci.Pap.Inst.Algol.Res.Fac.Sci.Hokkaido Imp.Univ. 1:193, Figs 12, 13 (1936)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus pale red/yellow with white margins, drying dark brown, primarily erect, to 4 cm tall, with limited prostrate axes, attached to the substratum at several points by clustered rhizoids. Erect axes pyramidal, heavily corticated, with indeterminate lateral branches arising in an irregular alternate-distichous pattern. Axial cells each with 5 whorl branches. Whorl branches pseudodichotomously branched 4–6 times, final branches 1–3 cells long, with obtuse apices. Cells of whorl branches often with white inclusions when fresh, but these not evident in formalin-preserved material. Basipetal, longitudinal cortical filaments arising 1–3 on basal cells of whorl branches within a few cells of the apices, eventually producing an outer secondary cortex of shorter, variously directed filaments, these forming a coherent outer layer. Primary axes (including cortication) to 2 mm in diameter. Cells of primary axes 100–120 µm in diameter, L:B 3–4 near apices, gradually increasing to 400–500 µm in diameter, L:B 2-3 when mature. Basal cells of whorl branches 25–35 µm in diameter, L:B 2–3 near apices, increasing to ± 75 µm in diameter when mature; median cells 25–35 µm in diameter, L:B 3.5–4; apical cells 10–25 µm in diameter, L:B 5–9.
Reproduction. Tetrasporangia borne on much-branched fertile filaments at nodes on basal cells of lateral branches, these becoming compound and producing several tetrasporangia; tetrasporangia subspherical, 70–80 µm in diameter when mature, tetrahedrally divided, each with 1–2 simple involucral filaments of 1–2 cells. Spermatangia not observed. Cystocarps formed at apices of lateral branches, spherical, 550–600 µm in diameter (including pericarp).
Distribution. Previously known only from Japan and China, newly recorded for Australia.