- Reference
- Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae 164, Fig. 38A-F (2018)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus to 3 mm tall; erect axes terete, 330–500 µm diam.; central axial cells 35–70 µm long, 25–45 µm diam. (including a wall c. 15 µm thick), with prominent pit connections. Periaxial filaments borne medially to distally on axial cells, anteriorly directed, subdichotomously branched, divaricate, occasionally percurrent with a single lateral distal branch. Lower cells 5–10 µm diam. [L:B 5–7]; mid-cortical cells Y-shaped, bearing an outermost layer of narrow spindle-shaped cells 25–35 µm long and 3–5 µm diam., these terminating in a thin spine that does not project above the smooth outer wall. Hair cells sometimes present on the outer cortex, 150–200 µm long.
Reproduction. Tetrasporangia elongate, pitconnected basally to bearing cells, when young with a pointed apex, but ellipsoidal at maturity and 30–35 µm long and 12–15 µm diam.
Distribution. Known only from the type specimen which was collected from Mermaid Reef, Rowley Shoals, Western Australia.
Habitat. Found on old consolidated coral at the reef crest.
[After J.M. Huisman in Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae: 164 (2018)]