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Service Notice

The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system and census were set to read-only mode on 1 October 2025. Taxonomic updates published since this time are not being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or Western Australia’s taxonomic names census (Nomos). Conservation listings displayed on Florabase may also be out of date. Please refer to DBCA’s Threatened species and communities webpage for the most recent Threatened and Priority Flora List, noting that recent taxonomic updates are similarly not included. Our database migration is moving to a staging phase. We thank you for your patience as we ensure the integrity of our biodiversity data, develop new workflows, and train staff to use the new systems. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

The notice period started at 12:00 pm on Wednesday, 1 October 2025 +08:00 and will end at 12:00 pm on Friday, 1 January 2027 +08:00.

Rhipilia nigrescens Coppejans & Prud'homme

Reference
Blumea 35:261-262 (1990)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus spongy, green when living, with a short indistinct stipe c. 4 mm long, spreading gradually to a peltate or infunduliform blade to 10 mm tall and 20 mm wide, growing in clusters and often anastomosing marginally with adjacent thalli. Stipe polysiphonous, with numerous narrow rhizoidal siphons 10–25 µm diam., in addition to larger primary siphons typical of blades. Rhizoidal siphons also spreading laterally, possibly forming additional thalli. Blades thicker centrally (c. 2 mm) and becoming thinner marginally (c. 1 mm), composed of several layers of siphons, these dichotomously to laterally branched, often with constrictions above branching points. Short lateral siphons mostly without constrictions, straight or often curved, with 4–7-pronged terminal tenaculae; prongs occasionally further divided and forming attachments to adjacent siphons. Primary siphons 45–70 (–80) μm diam.

Distribution. Known from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Kimberley coast and Scott Reef in northern W.A.

Habitat. Epilithic in the subtidal.

[After Huisman & Verbruggen, Algae of Australia: Mar. Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 1. Green and Brown Algae 141 (2015)]

John Huisman and Cheryl Parker, 3 August 2021

Distribution

IMCRA Regions
Kimberley.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Wyndham-East Kimberley.