- Reference
- Nuova Notarisia 16:147 (1905)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus medium green, forming compact spongy cushions composed of tangled branched filaments. Attachment by hapteroid cells (tenacular cells) produced on the apices of terminal cells. Growth by apical and intercalary cell division followed by cell elongation; apical cells occasionally dividing ±simultaneously into 3–6 cells. Newly formed cells producing a single lateral branch at their distal poles; older cells sometimes producing a second lateral. Branches mostly unilaterally arranged in the terminal branch systems. Cross-wall formation at base of branches delayed, L:B ratio of laterals in open connection with the mother cell up to 35. Apical cells (sub)cylindrical, to 6 mm long, 60–75 μm diam. [L:B 3–18]. Cell walls c. 2 μm thick in terminal branches, up to 8 μm thick in main axes. Chloroplasts polygonal, elongate or stellate, with 1 pyrenoid, forming an open parietal reticulum. Elongate prismatic calcium oxalate crystals present in most cells.
Distribution. Widespread in the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indo-Pacific; also reported from the western Atlantic . In Australia known from Lord Howe Island, the southern Great Barrier Reef and Scott Reef, north western Australia.
[After Huisman & Leliaert, Algae of Australia: Mar. Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 1. Green and Brown Algae 43 (2015)]