- Reference
- Eur.J.Phycol. 32:296 (1997)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus upright, occasionally decumbent, red to brownish red, sometimes with traces of green, to 15 cm tall, arising from a discoid holdfast, branching radially alternate; 1 or more percurrent axes often present, and main branches denuded along the lower regions. Upper branches 1.2–1.4 mm diam.; ultimate branchlets 0.5–2.0 mm long; lower axes to 2 mm diam. Epidermal cells in surface view somewhat rounded to longitudinally elongate, 12–40 µm long, generally with intercellular spaces, with prominent lateral pit connections. Corps en cerise present but obvious only in fresh material, 7–9 µm diam. Lenticular thickenings absent, although thickened walls sometimes present.
Reproduction. Tetrasporic branchlets in loose clusters, with tetrasporangia developing in ultimate and penultimate branchlets.
Distribution. Widespread in warmer waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In north-western Australia from Coral Bay to Cassini Island.
Habitat. epilithic in the intertidal and shallow subtidal.
[After Y. Metti, J.M. Huisman & A.J.K. Millar in Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae: 528–529 (2018)]