- Reference
- Phycol.Res. 44:139 (1996)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus erect, medium green, with solitary or clustered stipitate blades to 7 cm tall, attached by rhizoids arising from the proximal region of the stipe. Stipes simple or pseudodichotomously branched, with or without annular constrictions, each bearing a terminal blade. Blades elliptical when young, reticulate, with a central axial filament bearing opposite branches, then a second pair of branches below the first. Older blades becoming more irregular in shape, to 5 cm long and broad; primary axes within a meshwork of narrower filaments. Apical cells cylindrical, with rounded tips, straight or slightly curved, 120–850 μm long, (70–) 90–170 (−200) μm diam. Cells of the terminal branch systems cylindrical, (150–) 200–800 (−1000) μm long, (120–) 160–220 (−260) μm diam. Cells of the main axis 300–3000 μm long, 220–700 μm diam. Stipe cells subcylindrical, 10–20 mm long, 400–950 μm diam. (tapering slightly towards the base). Attachment of adjacent filaments by tenacular cells borne singly on the tips of apical cells, or laterals in open connection with the mother cell. Chloroplasts polygonal to round, forming a parietal reticulum, 4–6 μm diam., each with a single pyrenoid c. 2 μm diam. Prismatic calcium oxalate crystals present in most blade cells (except the tenacular cells), 1–9 per cell in the ultimate branch systems, up to 60 or more in the large basal blade cells, generally diamond-shaped, occasionally triangular or polygonal, 20–65 μm long, to 45 μm wide.
Distribution. Reported from scattered localities in the Indo-West Pacific.
Habitat. In the shallow to deep subtidal (down to 55 m), epilithic or epiphytic.
[After Huisman & Leliaert, Algae of Australia: Mar. Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 1. Green and Brown Algae 46 (2015)]