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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus CLIFTONAEA (Harvey) Harvey 1863: pl. 279.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Polyzonieae

Thallus erect, irregularly branched, with revolute apices developing an axis bearing a membranous, monostromatic keel and 2 adjacent rows of alternating, simple, terete, determinate laterals, pectinately arranged; holdfast discoid. Structure. Indeterminate axes ecorticate with 6 pericentral cells, dorsal and ventral and 2 lateral ones on each side; the dorsal ones form the keel and the 2 ventral lateral cells form the determinate laterals from alternate segments. Indeterminate branches arise endogenously and occur adjacent to the keel. Trichoblasts adaxial from each segment of the determinate laterals.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps in series on the second trichoblast cell on the next to basal segment of determinate laterals; carposporophytes with terminal carposporangia; cystocarps ovoid, pericarp corticated. Spermatangial organs replacing trichoblasts, flat or tri-radiate, with sterile marginal cells.

Tetrasporangia in long series in the axes or in proliferous branch clusters, cut off from the lateral pericentral cells opposite to those bearing a determinate lateral, large and covered by a layer of corticating cells.

Type species: C. pectinata Harvey 1859a: pl. 100.

Taxonomic notes: A monospecific genus following referral of C. semipennata to Echinosporangium Kylin, which is, however, closely related.

Cliftonia Harvey (1859a: pl. 100) was changed to Cliftonaea by Harvey (1863, pl. 279) due to the earlier Cliftonia Banks ex Gaertner.

References:

HARVEY, W.H. (1859a). Phycologia Australica. Vol. 2, Plates 61–120. (Reeve: London.)

HARVEY, W.H. (1863). Phycologia Australica. Vol. 5, Plates 241–300, synop., pp. i-lxxiii. (Reeve: London.)

The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIID complete list of references.

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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