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- Reference
- Kongel.Norske Vidensk.Selsk.Skr. (Trondheim) 1909(2):57 (1909)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Not Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus encrusting to lumpy, pale pink, 70–800 μm thick, monomerous in construction. Medulla multilayered, of branched filaments produced by apical initials 7–15 μm long, 9.5–15.0 μm diam.; lateral fusions uncommon; medullary cells 7–27 μm long, 7–12 μm diam. Cortex multilayered, with cells 7–20 μm long, 7–10 μm diam. Cortical filaments each ending in an intercalary initial cell that subtends 1 (rarely 2) rounded epithallial cells 7–8 μm long, 7–10 μm diam., with centrally placed cytoplasm. Intercalary initials generally a similar size to the cortical cells that they generate. Megacyte fields throughout the uppermost cortical layers, obvious from the surface, also evident deeper in the cortex, formed from modified cortical cells 29–40 μm long, 12–20 μm diam.; as fields mature, the megacytes appear to slough, leaving an open ‘honeycomb’. Megacyte fields becoming buried in the cortex, their appearance unchanged.
Reproduction. Tetrasporangial conceptacles level with the thallus surface, with only the pore visible, 65–220 μm outside diam., 165–390 μm internal diam.; pore 10–20 μm diam. below the conceptacle roof. Mature conceptacles becoming buried in the cortex. Tetrasporangia 40–60 μm long, 20–28 μm diam. Other reproductive structures not observed.
Distribution. Restricted to tropical waters of Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
Habitat. epilithic in the intertidal.
[After R.A. Townsend & J.M. Huisman in Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae: 125 (2018)]