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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet
Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Gigartinales – Family Halymeniaceae
Thallus complanately and pinnately branched for 2–3 orders, mucilaginous, axes 2–4 (–6) cm broad, laterals 1–2 cm broad, ramuli a few mm broad, older parts becoming relatively thick, with a discoid holdfast and cuneate stipe. Structure of a broad cortex, outer part of anticlinal branched filaments becoming 6–8 cells long and an inner cortex of ovoid to angular cells; medulla moderately to densely filamentous, with prominent refractive ganglionic cells.
Reproduction: Sexual thalli probably dioecious, with carpogonial branch ampullae of few secondary and tertiary filaments, converging slightly above. Auxiliary cell ampullae much branched, broad and only slightly converging above, branching above around the ostiole. Carposporophyte compact, lying within the medulla, with a moderate to dense involucre.
Tetrasporangia borne on mid cells of the outer cortex, scattered, cruciately divided.
Life history triphasic with isomorphic gametophytes and tetrasporophytes.
Type species: G. ulvoidea Sonder 1845: 55.
Taxonomic notes: G. ulvoidea is the only species of Gelinaria, characterised by the complanate, bi- to tripinnate thallus with broad axes tapering to narrow ramuli, the broad cortex, moderate to densely filamentous medulla, and auxiliary cell ampullae with much-branched filaments scarcely converging above.
References:
SONDER, O.G. (1845). Nova Algarum genera et species, quas in itinere ad oras occidentales Novae Hollandiae, collegit L. Preiss, Ph.Dr. Bot. Zeit. 3, 49–57.
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.
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