Cladophora patentiramea (Mont.) Kütz.

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus forming dark green cushions, composed of interwoven densely branched filaments, unattached or loosely attached to the substratum by rhizoids developing from the apices of terminal cells or, less frequently, from the proximal ends of intercalary cells. Growth by division of conspicuous apical cells, and by intercalary cell division; cells scarcely becoming longer and broader in a basipetal direction. Most cells producing a single lateral branch; older cells occasionally producing a second branch. Newly formed branches often without cross-walls at their base; in older branches cross-walls steeply inclined to the parent cell, resulting in a broad angle of ramification. Apical cells cylindrical, with rounded tips, 70–100 µm diam. [L:B 4–12]; basal cells to 120 µm diam. Cell walls c. 2 µm thick in apical cells and ultimate filaments, to 12 µm thick in basal cells.

Distribution. Widespread in warmer waters of the Indian and western Pacific Oceans; in Australia previously recorded from Lord Howe Island and the southern Great Barrier Reef.

Habitat. Forming mats in the intertidal and subtidal.

[After Huisman & Leliaert, Algae of Australia: Mar. Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 1. Green and Brown Algae 54 (2015)]