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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet
Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Acrochaetiales – Family Acrochaetiaceae
Synonyms
Chantransia macula Rosenvinge 1909: 114, fig. 42.
Colaconema maculum (Rosenvinge) Woelkerling 1971: 45, fig. 15A–I.
Acrochaetium subreductum Levring 1953: 480, fig. 13A–E.
Audouinella subreducta (Levring) Garbary 1979b: 490; 1987: 179.
Thallus (Fig. 13E–G) epiphytic, 10–30 µm high, original spore not persistent. Prostrate system (Fig. 13E–G) at first a small parenchyma-like group of cells, later producing short and mostly simple filaments which commonly but not always become confluent to form an irregularly shaped pseudoparenchymatous disc. Cells 3–6 µm in diameter and 4–7 (–9) µm long, L/D 1–2 (–3). Erect filaments (Fig. 13F) simple, up to 5 cells long. Cells (Fig. 13E–G) of erect filaments similar in size to those of the prostrate system, each cell containing a single (often unclear) stellate rhodoplast (Rosenvinge 1909, fig. 421) and one pyrenoid. Hairs unknown.
Reproduction: Monosporangia (Fig. 13E–G) spherical to ovoid, 4–5 µm in diameter and 5–7 µm long, sessile, terminal on erect filaments or arising from cells of prostrate filaments. Other reproductive structures unknown.
Type from Gjenild Klint, Kattegat, Denmark; holotype in C.
Selected specimens: Daly Head, Yorke Peninsula, S. Aust. (Woelkerling, 27.iii.1967; AD, A31372).
Distribution: Denmark; Norway.
In southern Australia, from Daly Head, Yorke Pen., S. Aust., on Audouinella daviesii. Levring (1953, p. 480) recorded it (as Acrochaetium subreductum) from Pelican Lagoon, Pennington Bay and Cape du Couedic on Kangaroo I., S. Aust., and from the Nobbies, Phillip I., Vic., on "various filamentous algae".
Taxonomic notes: Woelkerling (1971, p. 46) considered that Audouinella macula may represent a depauperate form of A. humilis, but since plants of intermediate morphology have not been found in southern Australian collections, the two taxa are maintained as distinct species until better understood.
Acrochaetium subreductum Levring, described from southern Australia, agrees well with Audouinella macula and is considered a synonym, as suggested by Woelkerling (1971, p. 46, 52).
References:
GARBARY, D.J. (1979b). Numerical Taxonomy and generic circumscription in the Acrochaetiaceae (Rhodophyta). Bot. Mar. 22, 477–492.
GARBARY, D.J. (1987). The Acrochaetiaceae (Rhodophyta): An annotated bibliography. Bibl. Phycol. 77, 1–267.
LEVRING, T. (1953). The marine algae of Australia. I. Rhodophyta: Goniotrichales, Bangiales and Némalionales. Arkiv för Bot. Ser. 2, 2, 457–530.
ROSENVINGE, L.K. (1909). The marine algae of Denmark. Part 1. Introduction. Rhodophyceae. 1. (Bangiales and Némalionales). K. danske Vidensk. Selsk. Biol. Skr., 7 Raekke, Afd. 7, 1–151, Plates 1, 2,2 maps.
WOELKERLING, W.J. (1971). Morphology and taxonomy of the Audouinella complex (Rhodophyta) in southern Australia. Aust. J. Bot. Suppl. 1, 1–91.
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIA complete list of references.
Publication:
Womersley, H.B.S. (14 January, 1994)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIIA, Bangiophyceae and Florideophyceae (to Gigartinales)
Reproduced with permission from The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIA 1994, by H.B.S. Womersley. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia.
Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 1994: FIG. 13 E–G.
Figure 13 enlarge
Fig. 13. A–D. Audouinella nakamurae (AD, A19847). A. Young thallus with a terminal hair. B–D. Mature thalli with monosporangia. E–G. Audouinella macula (AD, A31372). Mature thalli with monosporangia. H–L. Audouinella humilis (AD, A32114). H, I. Thalli with erect branches and monosporangia. J. Prostrate system (from below) with erect branches. K, L. Cells each with a rhodoplast and pyrenoid. M–Q. Audouinella spongicola (M, AD, A32125; N, P, Q, AD, A32127; 0, AD, A32126). M–P. Variation in cell length in the prostrate system. Q. Cells with rhodoplasts. [A-0 after Woelkerling 1971.]
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