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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus FAUCHEOPSIS Kylin 1931: 9

Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Rhodymeniales – Family Rhodymeniaceae

Thallus erect, firm, complanately branched with long, compressed, subdichotomous branches from the margins of lower, broader axes, attached by a discoid holdfast. Structure multiaxial, solid, with a compact outer cortex of closely-adjacent anticlinal filaments of small ovoid cells, arising from an inner cortex of periclinally ovoid cells; medulla of large, thick walled cells without secondary pit-connections, with slender rhizoidal filaments forming layers 1–4 cells thick between them.

Reproduction: Early sexual stages unknown. Carposporophyte dendroid, with an erect, branched, fusion cell bearing lobes of carposporangia. Basal nutritive tissue prominent, erect filaments persistent and extending around the carposporophyte. Cystocarps external, sessile on the margins or surfaces of older branches, at first smooth, later developing short horns. Spermatangia unknown.

Tetrasporangia scattered, cruciately divided.

Life history triphasic with isomorphic gametophytes and tetrasporophytes.

Type (and only) species: Faucheopsis coronata (Harvey) Kylin 1931: 9.

Taxonomic notes: Faucheopsis is closely related to Gloiocladia but for the present it is kept generically separate. Faucheopsis is less mucilaginous and firmer than species of Gloiocladia, the cortex is thicker and compact, with dense anticlinal filaments of small cells, branched mainly only near where they are attached to the inner cortical cells (in contrast to the taxer, more branched, cortical filaments in Gloiocladia), the medullary cells are thick-walled and without the numerous secondary pit-connections of Gloiocladia, and the rhizoidal filaments between the medullary cells are far denser and more prominent than in the latter. The cystocarps of Faucheopsis are less prominently horned, often smooth until relatively old.

F. tasmanica (J. Agardh) May (1965, p. 352) is Austrophyllis harveyana (J. Agardh) Womersley & Norris (1971, p. 30) (see Womersley 1994, p. 252).

References:

KYLIN, H. (1931). Die Florideenordnung Rhodyméniales. Lunds Univ. Årsskr. N.F. Avd. 2, 27 (11), 1–48, Plates 1–20.

MAY, V. (1965). A census and key to the species of Rhodophyceae (red algae) recorded from Australia. Contr. N.S.W. natn. Herb. 3, 349–429.

WOMERSLEY, H.B.S. & NORRIS, R.E. (1971). The morphology and taxonomy of Australian Kallymeniaceae (Rhodophyta). Aust. J. Bot. Suppl. 2, pp. 1–62.

WOMERSLEY, H.B.S. (1994). The Marine Benthic Flora of southern Australia. Rhodophyta - Part MA. (ABRS: Canberra.)

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

Author: H.B.S. Womersley

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (28 June, 1996)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIIB. Gracilarialse, Rhodymeniales, Corallinales and Bonnemaisoniales
Reproduced with permission from The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIB 1996, by H.B.S. Womersley. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia.


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