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Electronic Flora of South Australia Family Fact Sheet
Phylum Phaeophyta – Order Dictyosiphonales
Thallus (sporophyte) unbranched, usually 5–50 cm high, membranous, complanate, ligulate to ovoid and solid or hollow, or terete to inflated and bullate and hollow. Growth initially from a trichothallic filament, soon becoming polystichous with diffuse divisions. Structure of a small-celled phaeoplastic cortex and medulla of cells of similar size or much larger. Phaeophycean hairs scattered.
Microthallus (often gametophytes) minute, filamentous, branched, usually with occasional intercalary longitudinal divisions (otherwise recognised as Streblonema or Hecatonema). Life history diplohaplontic or direct via the microthallus.
Reproduction: Sporophyte with plurilocular and unilocular sporangia, transformed from cortical cells and swollen, or exserted from the cortex.
Taxonomic notes: A family of numerous genera (Wynne 1982, p. 122), with two present on southern Australian coasts, together with Hecatonema. The microthallic stages correspond to taxa of Streblonema (Ectocarpaceae) and Hecatonema (see below), and can only be clarified by further culture studies, few of which have been reported in southern Australia.
References:
WYNNE, M.J. (1982). Phaeophyceae. In Parker, S.P. (Ed.), Synopsis and classification of living organisms, Vol. I, pp. 115–125. (McGraw-Hill: New York.)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part II complete list of references.
Publication:
Womersley, H.B.S. (14 December, 1987)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Part II
©Board of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, Government of South Australia
KEY TO GENERA OF PUNCTARIACEAE
1. Thallus | HECATONEMA |
1. Thallus usually over 2 cm high and | 2 |
2. Thallus complanate, solid, (2–) | PUNCTARIA |
2. Thallus hollow, irregularly terete or bullate, or compressed with the sides closely adjacent, | ASPEROCOCCUS |
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