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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus LOPHOSIPHONIA Falkenberg in Schmitz & Falkenberg 1897: 459.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Polyzonieae

Thallus of prostrate, polysiphonous, ecorticate, indeterminate axes with curved apices, bearing irregularly more or less erect, simple or branched, determinate laterals often bearing trichoblasts; attachment of indeterminate axes by rhizoids; epiphytic or epilithic. Structure. Apices of indeterminate axes dorsiventrally organised, apical cells dome-shaped, dividing slightly obliquely resulting in a curved apex to the axes, filaments with 4, 6 or up to 20 pericentral cells. Lateral indeterminate axes or determinate laterals arising endogenously. Rhizoids cut off or not from pericentral cells.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps developing on lower cells of trichoblasts; carposporophytes with a short, branched, gonimoblast with terminal carposporangia. Cystocarps ovoid to urceolate, borne on determinate laterals, pericarp ecorticate. Spermatangial organs replacing trichoblasts or branches thereof.

Tetrasporangia borne in erect determinate laterals, one per segment.

Type species: L. obscura (C. Agardh) Falkenberg in Schmitz & Falkenberg 1897: 460.

Taxonomic notes: Lophosiphonia, a genus of several species, is characterised by its habit of prostrate indeterminate axes with relatively short, erect, determinate laterals arising endogenously, the apices of indeterminate axes being dorsiventrally organised; rhizoids are usually not cut off from the pericentral cell. Some species of Polysiphonia (e.g. P. scopulorum) superficially resemble Lophosiphonia but differ in having radial apices and exogenous laterals.

Two southern Australian species, L. obscura and L. prostrata, belong to the genus.

References:

SCHMITZ, F. & FALKENBERG, P. (1897). Rhodomelaceae. In Engler, A. & Prantl, K., Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien. T.1. Abt. 2, pp. 421–480. (Englemann: Leipzig.)

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.

KEY TO SPECIES OF LOPHOSIPHONIA

1. Pericentral cells 4, epiphytic on Zonarieae

L. prostrata

1. Pericentral cells 6, epiphytic on mangroves

L. obscura


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