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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Lenormandia spectabilis Sonder 1845: 54; 1848: 183; 1880: 32.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Amansieae

Selected citations: J. Agardh 1863: 1106. De Toni 1903: 1117. Ducker et al. 1977: 87. Falkenberg 1901: 467, pl. 8 fig. 17. Fuhrer et al. 1981: pl. 39. Harvey 1847: 18; 1855a: 537; 1862a: pl. 181; 1863, synop. xvi. Huisman & Walker 1990: 437. Kützing 1849: 849; 1865: 3, pl. 8a-e. Kylin 1956: 547. Lucas 1909: 46. Lucas & Perrin 1947: 301. May 1965: 397. Phillips 2002a: 189, figs 2–5. Shepherd & Womersley 1981: 368. Silva et al. 1996: 522. Womersley 1950: 189.

Synonyms

Lenormandia spectabilis var. enervis Harvey 1863, synop. xvi. Silva et al. 1996: 522.

Lenormandia spectabilis var. angustifolia Harvey 1863, synop.: xvi. Silva et al. 1996: 522.

Thallus (Fig. 165A) dark red-brown, fading to grey, 10–40 cm high, membranous, sparsely branched with branches usually 4–25 cm long and (1–) 2–4 (–6) cm broad, branches arising at or from within the margin of the parent blade, basally constricted into a short stipe, broadest half way or more along their length and tapering slightly to a rounded apex, margins entire, midrib slight. Holdfast discoid, 2–5 mm across; epilithic or epiphytic on Amphibolis and Acrocarpia paniculata. Structure. Apices cleft (Fig. 165B), apical cell conical, 50–60 µm in diameter (including very thick walls), axial cells cutting off 5 pericentral cells, the dorsal lateral cell larger than the ventral lateral cell, and the ventral pericentral cell, with the medulla 1–2 cells thick (thicker marginally) and a cortex 1–2 cells thick; surface view of blades showing rhombic areolation (Fig. 165B), cortical cells angular, irregular, 10–18 µm across and L/D 1–2.

Trichoblasts present on blade surfaces associated with reproductive organs. Cortical cells uninucleate, medullary cells multinucleate; rhodoplasts discoid, chained in larger cells.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps on branches of reduced trichoblasts, with a supporting cell bearing a 4-celled carpogonial branch and a single basal cell and a lateral 2-celled sterile group, with a pre-fertilization pericarp. Carposporophytes with a basal fusion cell and much branched gonimoblast with clavate terminal carposporangia 25–40 µm in diameter. Cystocarps (Fig. 165C) single (occasionally clustered) on blade surfaces, globose to ovoid, short stalked, 0.5–1 mm in diameter; pericarp ostiolate, 5–8 cells thick. Spermatangial organs (Fig. 165D) in dense clusters on blade surfaces, on branched polysiphonous shoots, with a sterile basal cell, ovoid, 35–55 µm in diameter and L/D 1.2–1.6.

Tetrasporangial stichidia in scattered clusters (Fig. 165E) on blade surfaces, ovoid, 300–900 µm long and 150–300 µm in diameter, slightly compressed, corticated, with tetrasporangia paired in 2–4 segments, 60–100 µm in diameter.

Published illustration: Womersley Part IIIA, 2003: FIG.165.

Type from "Nov. Holl. Occid." (Preiss); lectotype in HBG (no type material in MEL).

Selected specimens: Flat Rocks, 40 km S of Geraldton, W. Aust., drift (Mitchell, 17.ix.1966; AD, A31077). Dongara, W. Aust., drift (Kraft 7090 & Allender, 9.viii.1979; MELU). Point Peron, W. Aust., on Amphibolis antarctica, drift (Ducker, 8.viii.1973; MELU, A21746). Safety Bay, W. Aust., drift (Womersley, 18.viii.1979; AD, A50769). Israelite Bay, W. Aust., drift (Wells, 10.xii.1974; AD, A46081). Isles of St Francis, S. Aust., 37 m deep (Symonds, 23.x.1973; AD, A44254). Waldegrave I., S. Aust., 22 m deep (Shepherd, 17.iv.1970; AD, A35889). Point Drummond, S. Aust,, on Acrocarpia, drift (Shepherd, 19.x.1970; AD, A37404). Wanna, S. Aust., drift (Womersley, 19.ii.1959; AD, A22405). Encounter Bay, S. Aust., drift (Harris, Dec. 1943; AD, A1909). Seal Bay, Kangaroo I., S. Aust., drift (Womersley, 21.i.1965; AD, A28690). Stanley Beach, Kangaroo I., S. Aust., drift (Womersley, 6.ii.1957; AD, A20938). Robe, S. Aust., on Amphiboles, drift (Womersley, 30.x.1993; AD, A63214).


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

Distribution: Geraldton, W. Aust., to Robe, S. Australia.

Taxonomic notes: L. spectabilis is characterised by its robust dimensions and by daughter blades arising mostly within the margin of the parent blade and with a very short stipe. It is a deep-water species on rough-water coasts.

References:

AGARDH, J.G. (1863). Species Genera et Ordines Algarum. Vol. 2, Part 3, pp. 787–1291. (Gleerup: Lund.)

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

DUCKER, S.C., FOORD, N.J. & KNOX, R.B. (1977). Biology of Australian Seagrasses: the genus Amphibolis C. Agardh (Cymodoceaceae). Aust. J. Bot. 25, 67–95.

FALKENBERG, P. (1901). Die Rhodomelaceen des Golfes von Neapel und der angrenzenden Meeres-abschnitte. Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel. Monogr. 26. (Friedländer: Berlin.)

FUHRER, B., CHRISTIANSON, I.G., CLAYTON, M.N. & ALLENDER, B.M. (1981). Seaweeds of Australia. (Reed: Sydney.)

HARVEY, W.H. (1847). Nereis Australis, pp. 1–69, Plates 1–25. (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. (1862a). Phycologia Australica. Vol. 4, Plates 181–240. (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.

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

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

KYLIN, H. (1956). Die Gattungen der Rhodophyceen. (Gleerups: Lund.)

LUCAS, A.H.S. & PERRIN, F. (1947). The Seaweeds of South Australia. Part 2. The Red Seaweeds. (Govt Printer: Adelaide.)

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

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

PHILLIPS, L.E. (2002a). Taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of the red algal genus Lenormandia (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales). J. Phycol. 38, 184–208.

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.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.

SONDER, O.W. (1848). Algae. In Lehmann, C., Plantae Preissianae. Vol. 2, pp. 161–195. (Hamburg.)

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

WOMERSLEY, H.B.S. (1950). The marine algae of Kangaroo Island. III. List of Species 1. Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 73, 137–197.

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

Author: by H.B.S. Womersley and L.E. Phillips

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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