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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Laurencia brongniartii J. Agardh 1841: 20; 1852: 768; 1876: 660.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Laurencieae

Selected citations: Abe et al. 1998: 231, figs 1–17. Cribb 1983: 114, pl. 36 fig. 4. De Toni 1903: 805. Huisman 1997: 205; 2000: 170. Huisman & Walker 1990: 436. Huisman et al. 1990: 97. Kendrick et al. 1990: 52. Kützing 1849: 856. May 1953: 60; 1981: 342. Millar 1990: 463. Millar & Kraft 1993: 53. Saito & Womersley 1974: 839, figs 4C, D, 20, 21. Shepherd & Womersley 1981: 368. Silva et al. 1996: 504. Taylor 1960: 628. Yamada 1931: 240, pl. 25.

Synonyms

Laurencia concinna Montagne 1842b: 6; 1845: 126, pl. 14 fig. 3. J. Agardh 1852: 764; 1876: 661. Cribb 1958: 162. De Toni 1903: 806. Harvey 1849a: 81. Kützing 1849: 857; 1865: 24, pl. 69a, b. Lucas 1909: 39; 1935: 223, pl. 9 fig. 1. Sonder 1880: 30.

Laurencia distichophylla sensu Harvey 1855a: 545; 1863, synop.: xxvi.

Laurencia grevilleana Harvey 1855a: 545; 1858: pl. 15; 1863, synop.: xxvi. J. Agardh 1876: 661. Cribb 1958: 162. De Toni 1903: 806. Lucas 1909: 39. Sonder 1880: 30. Tisdall 1898: 512. Wilson 1892: 169. Yamada 1931: 245.

Thallus (Fig. 215A) medium red to red-brown, firm, drying cartilaginous, 5–18 cm high, with one to several axes, complanately and regularly pinnately branched; axes strongly compressed, 1.5–4 mm broad and 0.5–1 mm thick, decreasing to ultimate branchlets 0.5–1 (–1.5) mm broad, with truncated apices. Holdfast discoid, becoming branched and 2–12 mm across, sometimes stoloniferous; epilithic. Structure. Epidermal cells (Fig. 214F) 25–40 µm broad and slightly elongate near apices, increasing to 60–80 µm broad and L/D 2–2.5 below, with secondary pit-connections and corps en cerise, in section quadrate to L/D 3, occasionally palisade-like; cortical cells compact, often with prominent lenticular thickenings. Cells (epidermal) binucleate; rhodoplasts discoid to elongate, chained in larger cells.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps not observed. Carposporophytes with a small basal fusion cell and branched gonimoblast bearing clavate terminal carposporangia 30–70 µm in diameter. Cystocarps (Fig. 215B, E) lateral and usually single, broad based, globular to slightly ovoid, 600–1300 µm in diameter; pericarp ostiolate, without or with a slight neck, 4–5 cells thick. Spermatangial ramuli single or grouped, receptacles 600–800 µm broad.

Tetrasporangia in simple or clustered terete ramuli (Fig. 215C, D, F), 300–600 (–800) µm in diameter and (0.5–) 1–2 mm long, cut off abaxially in parallel arrangement, 70–120 (–135) µm in diameter, tetrahedrally or decussately divided.

Type from Martinique, West Indies; holotype in Herb. Agardh, LD, 37257; isotype in PC.

Selected specimens: Point Peron, W. Aust., reef pools (Womersley, 23.viii.1947; AD, A5831). King Head, Rottnest I., W. Aust., reef edge (Womersley, 6.ix.1979; AD, A50846). Hamelin Bay, W. Aust., 1–2 na deep (Clarke & Engler, 1.ix.1979; AD, A50620). Elliston, S. Aust., 10–12 m deep outside bar (Shepherd, 25.x.1971; AD, A42671). Port Noarlunga, S. Aust., 10 m deep (Kraft, 13.xii.1973; AD, A44591). Aldinga, S. Aust., 8–11 m deep (F. Mitchell, 4.i.1959; AD, A22079). Port Phillip Heads, Vic, (Wilson, 29.xii.1884; MEL, 1001034). Mallacoota, Vic. (Ducker & King, I 5.ii.1970; MELU, 20667).


Distribution map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of SA

Distribution: Widespread in tropical and subtropical waters, including the entire coasts of N.S.W. (Millar & Kraft 1993, p. 53) and western Western Australia.

In southern Australia, isolated records from several localities (see below).

Taxonomic notes: The synonymy of L. brongniartii was discussed by Saito & Womersley (1974, p. 840). It is largely a tropical species, extending into southern Australia as isolated occurrences.

References:

ABE, T., MASUDA, M., KAWAGUCHI, S. & KAMURA, S. (1998). Taxonomic notes on Laurencia brongniartii (Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta). Phycol. Res. 46, 231–237.

AGARDH, J.G. (1841). In historiam algarum symbolae. Linnaea 15, 1–50, 443–457.

AGARDH, J.G. (1852). Species Genera et Ordines Algarum. Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 337–720. (Gleerup: Lund.)

AGARDH, J.G. (1876). Species Genera et Ordines Algarum. Vol. 3, Part 1 - Epicrisis systematis Floridearum, pp. i-vii, 1–724. (Weigel: Leipzig.)

CRIBB, A.B. (1958). Records of marine algae from south-eastern Queensland III. Laurencia Lamx. Univ. Qld Pap. Dept Bot. 3(19), 159–191.

CRIBB, A.B. (1983). Marine algae of the southern Great Barrier Reef—Part I. Rhodophyta. (Aust. Coral Reef Soc., Handbook 2: Brisbane.)

DE TONI, G.B. (1903). Sylloge Algarum omnium hucusque Cognitarum. Vol. 4. Florideae. Sect. 3. pp. 775–1521 + 1523–1525. (Padua.)

HARVEY, W.H. (1849a). Nereis Australis, pp. 65–124, Plates 26–50. (Reeve: London.)

HARVEY, W.H. (1855a). Some account of the marine botany of the colony of Western Australia. Trans. R. Jr. Acad. 22, 525–566.

HARVEY, W.H. (1858). Phycologia Australica. Vol. 1, Plates 1–60. (Reeve: London.)

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

HUISMAN, J.M. & WALKER, D.I. (1990). A catalogue of the marine plants of Rottnest Island, Western Australia, with notes on their distribution and biogeography. Kingia 1, 349–459.

HUISMAN, J.M. (1997). Marine Benthic Algae of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia. In Wells, F.E. (Ed.) The Marine Flora and Fauna of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia, pp. 177–237. (W. Aust. Museum: Perth.)

HUISMAN, J.M. (2000). Marine Plants of Australia. (Univ. W. Aust. Press, Nedlands, W. Aust. & ABRS, Canberra, A.C.T.)

HUISMAN, J.M., KENDRICK, G.A., WALKER, D.I. & COUTÉ, A. (1990). The Marine Algae of Shark Bay, Western Australia. Research in Shark Bay. Report of the France-Australe Bicentenary Expedition Committee, pp. 89–100.

KÜTZING, F.T. (1849). Species Algarum. (Leipzig.)

KÜTZING, F.T. (1865). Tabulae Phycologicae. Vol. 15. (Nordhausen.)

KENDRICK, G.A., HUISMAN, J.M. & WALKER, D.I. (1990). Benthic macroalgae of Shark Bay, Western Australia. Bot. Mar. 33, 47–54.

LUCAS, A.H.S. (1909). Revised list of the Fucoideae and Florideae of Australia. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 34, 9–60.

LUCAS, A.H.S. (1935). The marine algae of Lord Howe Island. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. 60, 194–232, Plates 5–9.

MAY, V. (1953). A key to the genera of Rhodophyceae (red algae) hitherto recorded from Australia. Contr. N.S. W. Natl Herb. 2, 13–66.

MAY, V. (1981). Long-term variation in algal intertidal floras. Aust. J. Ecol. 6, 329–343.

MILLAR, A.J.K. & KRAFT, G.T. (1993). Catalogue of marine and freshwater Red Algae (Rhodophyta) of New South Wales, including Lord Howe Island, South-western Pacific. Aust. Syst. Bot. 6, 1–90.

MILLAR, A.J.K. (1990). Marine Red Algae of the Coffs Harbour Region, northern New South Wales. Aust. Syst. Bot. 3, 293–593.

MONTAGNE, C. (1842b). Prodromus Generum Specierumque Phycearum Novarum in Itinere ad Polum Antarcticum. (Paris.)

MONTAGNE, C. (1845). Voyage au Pôle Sud et dans l'Océanie sur les Corvettes l'Astrolabe et la Zélèe. Botanique, T I. Plantes cellulaires. (Plates 1–20 dated 1852.) (Sirou: Paris.)

SAITO, Y. & WOMERSLEY, H.B.S. (1974). The southern Australian species of Laurencia (Ceramiales: Rhodophyta). Aust. J. Bot. 22, 815–874.

SHEPHERD, S.A. & WOMERSLEY, H.B.S. (1981). The algal and seagrass ecology of Waterloo Bay, South Australia. Aquat. Bot. 11, 305–371.

SILVA, P.C., BASSON, P.W. & MOE, R.L. (1996). Catalogue of the Benthic Marine Algae of the Indian Ocean. (Univ. California Press: Berkeley.)

SONDER, O.W. (1880). In Mueller, F., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. Supplementum ad volumen undecinum: Algae Australianae hactenus cognitae, pp. 1–42, 105–107. (Melbourne.)

TISDALL, H.T. (1898). The algae of Victoria. Rep. 7th Meet. Aust. Ass. Adv. Sci., Sydney, 1898, pp. 493–516.

WILSON, J.B. (1892). Catalogue of algae collected at or near Port Phillip Heads and Western Port. Proc. R. Soc. Viet. 4, 157–190.

YAMADA, Y. (1931). Notes on Laurencia, with special reference to the Japanese species. Univ. Calif Pubis Bot. 16, 185–311.

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.


Illustrations in Womersley Part IIIA, 2003: FIGS 214F, 215.

Figure 214 image

Figure 214   enlarge

Fig. 214. A. Laurencia tasmanica (AD, A41518). Transverse section. B. Laurencia filiformis f. filiformis (AD, A41955). Transverse section, with lenticular thickenings. C. Laurencia filiformis f. dendritica (AD, A42549). Transverse section. D. Laurencia botryoides (AD, A42775). Transverse section. E. Laurencia elata (AD, A42237). Transverse section, with lenticular thickenings. F. Laurencia brongniartii (AD, A44591). Longitudinal section. (All as in Saito & Womersley 1974, courtesy of Aust. J. Bot.)

Figure 215 image

Figure 215   enlarge

Fig. 215. Laurencia brongniartii (A, AD, A22079; B–F, AD, A44591). A. Habit. B. Cystocarpic branch. C. Tetrasporangial branch. D. Tetrasporangial ramuli. E. Section of cystocarp. F. Ramuli with tetrasporangia. (A–D as in Saito & Womersley 1974, courtesy of Aust. J. Bot.)


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