- Reference
- Phycologia 43:566-571, Figs 10-30 (2004)
- Conservation Code
- Not threatened
- Naturalised Status
- Native to Western Australia
- Name Status
- Current
Scientific Description
Habit and structure. Thallus with prostrate and erect axes, light pink, to 11 mm tall, ecorticate, with an essentially complete mucilaginous coating in upper branches, this less obvious lower down, attached by multicellular branched rhizoids arising from basal cells of whorl branches on prostrate axes. Erect axes bearing indeterminate branches alternately or unilaterally every 3–5 cells (more sparse lower down), these arising directly from axial cells in addition to whorl branches. Cells of erect axes 10–20 µm diam. distally [L:B 1.5–2], becoming broader and proportionally shorter proximally, to 170 µm diam. [L:B 1.2–1.4]. Whorl branches short, congested near the apex and curving upwardly, otherwise mostly outwardly directed and not covering the axial filament, divaricately branched, the first division dichotomous to tetrachotomous, subsequent divisions dichotomous to trichotomous; terminal cells mostly in pairs, ellipsoidal to spherical, markedly shorter than subtending cells, 5–8 µm diam.
Reproduction. Spermatangia arising in clusters on outer cortical cells, ellipsoidal, 2–3 µm diam. Other reproductive structures not observed.
Distribution. Known from Bermuda, Florida, the West Indies, Haiti and north-western Australia.
Habitat. Epiphytic on larger algae in the shallow subtidal
[After J.M. Huisman in Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae: 364–366 (2018)]