Bryopsis pennata J.V.Lamour.

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus solitary or forming spreading clumps, to 10 cm tall, attached by branched digitate rhizoidal holdfasts from which arise branched stoloniferous siphons that spread laterally, are terete and 200–340 µm diam. Upright axes terete, mostly 380–520 µm diam., tapering to c. 250 µm diam. near the apices, simple or occasionally dichotomously branched; lower parts naked. Middle to upper portions of erect axes with crowded lateral ramuli, these variously arranged, pinnate, radial or secund, simple, basally constricted, 1.4–2.2 mm long, 90–165 µm diam., with rounded apices. Siphons with numerous lenticular plastids to 10 µm long, each with a single pyrenoid. Reproductive structures not observed.

Distribution. Widespread in tropical seas.

Habitat. Epilithic or epiphytic on other algae.

[After Huisman, Algae of Australia: Mar. Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 1. Green and Brown Algae 70 (2015)]