- Reference
- Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae 418 (2018)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus red, with a limited prostrate axis and assurgent axes to 2.5 mm tall, attached to the substratum by unicellular rhizoids arising from periaxial cells. Erect axes alternately and complanately branched every 4 or 5 cells in primary axes, every 5–7 cells in lateral branches. Nodes with (4–) 5 periaxial cells, each producing 3 or 4 cells, 1 basipetal by a horizontal division and 2 or 3 acropetal cells, 1 from the upper surface by a transverse division and 2 by oblique divisions from the corners of the periaxial cell. Basipetal cell dividing further and producing 1 or 2 cells by horizontal or shallowly oblique divisions. Acropetal cells dividing several times obliquely. Mature nodes to 7 cells long. Axial cells ellipsoidal to cylindrical, 50–80 μm diam. [L:B 2–4], becoming shorter near the apices. Nodes to 70–100 μm diam. [L:B 0.8–1]. Vesicular cells occasionally produced from upper nodal cells, hemispherical, 14–18 μm wide.
Reproduction. Tetrasporangia whorled, (1–) 2–5 per node, tetrahedrally divided but often appearing decussate, subspherical, to 50 μm diam. (including the wall) borne on periaxial cells, strongly protruding but completely enveloped by acropetal involucral filaments.
Distribution. Known only from the Mexican type locality and Barrow Island, N.W.A. but, as with other species previously considered synonymous with G. flaccida, its true distribution is unknown.
Habitat. Epiphytic in the shallow subtidal.
[After J.M. Huisman in Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae: 418 (2018)]