- Reference
- P.B. Webb, Otia Hispan. 11, Pl. 10 (1839)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus rose-red, with extensive prostrate axes bearing erect axes to 8 mm tall. Prostrate axes with ellipsoidal to subcylindrical cells 850–1000 µm long and 400–650 µm diam., attached by slender 1–4-celled short branches terminating in multicellular digitate holdfasts, these arising ±medially on the bearing cell. Erect axes dichotomously branched every 1–4 cells; terminal branch often 4 cells long with distally progressively smaller cells. Cells of erect axes obovoid, ellipsoidal or subspherical, to 1 mm long, 650–800 µm diam.; apical cells subspherical, 60–80 µm diam. Secondary attachments to adjacent filaments common, by short narrow cells arising laterally on the bearing cell and forming a secondary connection with the target cell. A single immature carposporophyte observed, terminal, involucrate, with carposporangia 20–30 µm diam.
Reproduction. Tetrasporangia pedicellate in dense clusters between articulations, 1–4 sporangia per pedicel, pyriform to spherical, tetrahedrally divided, 55–65 µm long, 50–60 µm diam.; outermost pedicels externally with 1 or 2 large reniform involucral cells.
Distribution. Widespread in tropical and subtropical seas, but not previously recorded from Australia.
Habitat. epizoic in the subtidal.
[After J.M. Huisman in Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae: 606–607 (2018)]