Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Laurencia distichophylla J. Agardh 1852: 762; 1876: 656.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Laurencieae

Selected citations: Adams 1994: 328, pl. 113, upper right. De Toni 1903: 800; 1924: 373. Harvey 1855b: 234; 1863, synop.: xxvi?. Laing 1927: 164. Millar & Kraft 1993: 54. Saito & Womersley 1974: 841, fig. 22. Silva et al. 1996: 507. Yamada 1931: 235.

Thallus (Fig. 216A) medium to dark red, drying cartilaginous, 2–5 cm high, with several complanately branched axes bearing closely pinnate laterals for 2–4 orders; axes compressed, 0.5–1 mm broad, 200–300 µm thick, laterals 0.5–2 (–3) mm apart, ultimate branchlets (0.5–) 1–2 mm long, terete to slightly compressed, 300–500 µm broad. Holdfast stoloniferous; epilithic. Structure. Epidermal cells 15–30 µm broad near apices and L/D 1–1.5 (–2), below 25–40 µm broad and L/D 2–3 (–4) with secondary pit-connections, in section, epidermal cells quadrate, cortical cells with occasional lenticular thickenings. Cells with discoid to elongate rhodoplasts.

Reproduction: Procarps not observed. Carposporophytes with a basal fusion cell and much branched gonimoblast with clavate terminal carposporangia 30–70 µm in diameter. Cystocarps lateral and usually single, sessile, broad-based, ovoid, 600–1200 µm in diameter; pericarp ostiolate, 3–4 cells thick. Spermatangial thalli not recorded.

Tetrasporangial ramuli (Fig. 216B) simple or branched, terete, 1–2 (–3) mm long and 300–600 µm in diameter, tetrasporangia cut off abaxially, in parallel arrangement, 60–130 µm in diameter.

Type from New Zealand; holotype in Herb. Agardh. LD, 37171.

Selected specimens: Wine Glass Bay, Freycinet Pen., Tas., in rock pools (Wollaston & Mitchell, 2.iii.1964; AD, A27906).

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

Distribution: In southern Australia, known only from Wine Glass Bay, Freycinet Pen., Tasmania. N.S.W. (Millar & Kraft 1993, p. 54).

New Zealand (N Island). Recorded from various tropical Indian Ocean localities (see Silva et al 1996, p. 507).

Taxonomic notes: Laurencia distichophylla is a slender, pinnately branched, species, from the north island of New Zealand, known in southern Australia only from the above record of tetrasporangial and cystocarpic plants. Papenfuss (1952, p. 184) considered that it does not occur in South Africa, but Silva et al. (1996, p. 507) recorded it from widespread Indian Ocean localities. Yendo (1916b) and Yamada (1931, p. 235) recorded it from Japan, but it is not listed by Yoshida (1998).

References:

ADAMS, N.M. (1994). Seaweeds of New Zealand. (Cant. Univ. Press: Christchurch.)

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.)

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

DE TONI, G.B. (1924). Sylloge Algarum omnium hucusque Cognitarum. Vol. 6. Florideae. (Padua.)

HARVEY, W.H. (1855b). Algae. In Hooker, J.D., The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part II, pp. 211–266, Plates 107–121. (Reeve: London.)

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

LAING, R.M. (1927). A reference list of New Zealand marine algae. Trans. Proc. N.Z. Inst. 57, 126–185.

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.

PAPENFUSS, G.F. (1952). Notes on South African marine algae III. J. S. Afr. Bot. 17, 167–188.

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

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

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

YENDO, K. (1916b). Notes on Algae new to Japan V. Bat. Mag., Tokyo 30, 243–263.

YOSHIDA, T. (1998). Marine Algae of Japan. (Uchida Rokakuho Publ. Co.: Tokyo.)

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.

Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 2003: FIG. 216.

Figure 216   enlarge

Fig. 216. Laurencia distichophylla (AD, A27906). A. Habit. B. Branch with tetrasporangia. (As in Saito & Womersley 1974, courtesy of Aust. J. Bot.]

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