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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus ALLEYNEA Womersley, gen. nov.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Polysiphonieae

Thallus erect, with long indeterminate axes bearing short determinate laterals radially and spirally, determinate laterals branched 3–5 times subdichotomously and more-or-less complanately, ultimate branches short and bicornate; axes arising from an entangled, stoloniferous, base attached by multicellular compound rhizoids. Structure. Apical cells hemispherical to dome-shaped, segmenting transversely or obliquely. Pericentral cells 6, becoming corticate close to apices with an inner large-celled and outer small-celled cortex surrounding the central, clear, pericentral cells. Trichoblasts occasional only, on female plants, coarse.

Reproduction: Procarps on supra-basal cells of trichoblasts, with a 4-celled carpogonial branch and 2–3 sterile cells. Carposporophytes with short, branched, gonimoblast and elongate-clavate terminal carposporangia. Cystocarps ovoid; pericarp ostiolate, ecorticate. Spermatangial plants unknown.

Stichidia in branched clusters on determinate laterals, ecorticate, tetrasporangia in a gently spiral row, with 2 cover cells.

Type species: A. bicornis Womersley, sp. nov.

Taxonomic notes: Alleynea is provisionally placed in the Polysiphoniae (it merits comparisons also with the Pterosiphonieae), with the group of genera characterised by having indeterminate axes bearing short, determinate, laterals branched in various ways. The subdichotomous branching of the laterals, more-or-less complanately, separates it from genera such as Chiracanthia and Pityophycos.

Alleynea is named after my wife who has accompanied me on most field trips, including many when this alga was collected.

References: The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIID

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (24 February, 2003)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIID. Ceramiales – Delesseriaceae, Sarcomeniaceae, Rhodomelaceae
Reproduced with permission from The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIID 2003, by H.B.S. Womersley. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia.


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