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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Leptoklonion fastigiatum (Harvey) Womersley, comb. nay.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Order Ceramiales – Family Ceramiaceae – Tribe Heterothamnieae

Synonyms

Collithamnion fastigiatum Harvey 1859b: 336. J. Agardh 1876: 38; 1892: 34. De Toni 1903: 1327. Lucas 1909: 49; 1929a: 24. Sonder 1881: 10.

Amoenothamnion elongatum Wollaston 1968: 380, fig. 36A–Q.

Leptoklonion elongatum (Wollaston) Athanasiadis 1996: 184, fig. 92.

Thallus (Fig. 88C) medium red, erect, 1–4 cm high, delicate with long axes bearing laterals at intervals of 5–8 cells, often becoming subdichotomous with an additional shorter lateral branch at the branchings, axial cells (Fig. 88D) with 4 (–5) short whorl-branchlets. Attachment by slender rhizoids from basal, more or less erect, axial cells; epiphytic. Structure. Apical cells (Fig. 88E) 6–8 µm in diameter and L/D 1–2, with a short, straight to slightly curved, chain of 5–8 (–14) such cells (Fig. 88F), then enlarging rapidly to axial cells 50–200 µm in diameter and L/D 1–2 (–2.6). Whorl-branchlets (Fig. 88D) 30–40 (–70) µm and 2–4 cells long, simple or branched 2–3 times, branching from the basal cell; basal cells 10–13 µm in diameter and L/D 1–1.5, tapering to terminal cells 4–6 µm in diameter and L/D 2–3, often with a hair; gland cells (Fig. 88E, F) prominent and frequent, on terminal (or subterminal) cells of (usually) each branch of a whorl-branchlet and touching only the bearing cell, ovoid to hemispherical, 10–15 in diameter. Lateral branches arising from basal cell of whorl-branchlets. Cells uninucleate; rhodoplasts elongate in small cells, ribbon like in larger cells.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Carpogonial branches borne on basal (=supporting) cells of 2-celled whorl-branchlets, often with a gland cell on the terminal cell; the branch apex ceases development as the procarp develops. Post-fertilization the auxiliary cell develops a foot cell and a central cell which produces a terminal and usually 2 lateral gonimolobes 50–100 µm across, with ovoid carposporangia 15–20 µm in diameter; fusions occur between the axial cell, residual supporting cell and foot cell; branches from below loosely surround the carposporophyte. Spermatangial clusters (Fig. 88G) dense, borne on cells of the whorl-branchlets.

Tetrasporangia occur on basal cells of whorl-branchlets, often on projections from the initial cell, sessile, subspherical to slightly ovoid, 40–70 µm in diameter, subdecussately divided.

Type from Georgetown, Tas., on Zostera (Gunn); holotype in Herb. Harvey, TCD.

Selected specimens: Investigator Strait, S. Aust., 35 m deep (Watson, 14.i.1971; AD, A38206). Troubridge I., S. Aust., 23 m deep (Shepherd, 4.ii.1969; AD, A33822 - "Marine Algae of southern Australia" No. 102, as Amoenothamnion elongatum). Tapley Shoal (off Edithburg), S. Aust., 15 m deep (Shepherd, 2.ii.1969; AD, A33507). Pennington Bay, Kangaroo I., S. Aust., drift (Womersley, 29.xii.1948; AD, A13032 - type of Am. elongatum).


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

Distribution: The southern Gulf region and Kangaroo I., S. Australia.

Taxonomic notes: L. fastigiatum is an older name for L. elongatum (Wollaston) Athanasiadis. It appears to be a deep water species, known from depths of 10 to 41 m in the Troubridge I. – Tapley Shoal region of Gulf St Vincent, South Australia.

References:

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

AGARDH, J.G. (1892). Analecta Algologica. Acta Univ. lund. 28, 1–182, Plates 1–3.

ATHANASIADIS, A. (1996). Morphology and classification of the Ceramioideae (Rhodophyta) based on phylogenetic principles. Opera Botanica No. 128, pp. 1–216.

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

HARVEY, W.H. (1859b). Algae. In Hooker, J.D., The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage. III. Flora Tasmaniae. Vol. II, pp. 282–343, Plates 185–196. (Reeve: London.)

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. (1929a). The marine algae of Tasmania. Pap. Proc. R. Soc. Tasm. 1928, 6–27.

SONDER, O.W. (1881). In Mueller, F., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. Supplementum ad volumen undecinum: Algae Australianae hactenus cognitae, pp. 1–42, 105–107. (Melbourne.)

WOLLASTON, E.M. (1968).Morphology and taxonomy of southern Australian genera of Crouanieae Schmitz (Ceramiaceae, Rhodophyta). Aust. J. Bot. 16, 217–417.

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

Author: H.B.S. Womersley & E.M. Wollaston

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (24 December, 1998)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIIC. Ceramiales – Ceramiaceae, Dasyaceae
©State Herbarium of South Australia, Government of South Australia


Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 1998: FIG. 88 C–G.

Figure 88 image

Figure 88   enlarge

Fig. 88. Amoenothamnion minimum (AD, A20058). A. Thallus with whorl-branchlets and carposporophytes. B. Thallus with whorl-branchlets bearing tetrasporangia. C–G. Leptokionion fastigiatum (C, AD, A33922; D, AD, A13032; G, H, AD, A33448). C. Habit. D. Branches with apices, laterals and whorl-branchlets. E. Apex with rapidly enlarging subapical cells and whorl-branchlets with gland cells. F. Apex with axial cells enlarging more gradually, and whorl-branchlets with gland cells on terminal cells. G. Spermatangial clusters on whorl-branchlets.


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