Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus MICROPEUCE J. Agardh 1899: 123

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Lophothalieae

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps borne on lower cells of trichoblasts which become polysiphonous. Carposporophytes with a basal fusion cell and branched gonimoblast with terminal carposporangia. Cystocarps globose to urceolate, pericarp ostiolate, corticated. Spermatangial organs developed as branches of trichoblasts.

Tetrasporangia produced in lesser branches, bearing trichoblasts, spirally arranged, one per segment and bulging the segments.

Type species: M strobilifera J. Agardh 1899: 126 [= M feredayae (Harvey) Kylin].

Taxonomic notes: Thallus erect, radially branched, corticated, branches clothed with rhodoplastic, persistent, trichoblasts but usually without adventitious filaments; holdfast discoid. Structure monopodial, trichoblasts arising close to apices, with 5 pericentral cells formed in alternating sequence, remaining clear in transverse section of corticated branches. Trichoblasts branched several times in their lower part, branches more or less in an upwardly curved plane or irregular, rhodoplastic, walls of cells at branchings not adherent. Cells mainly uninucleate.

A genus of about 6 species, 4 from southern Australia (some of which are doubtfully distinct), M mucronata (Harvey) Kylin from Atlantic N and S America, and M setosus Abbott (see Abbott 1999, p. 405) from the Hawaiian Is.

Two southern Australian species are regarded as of uncertain status; they are dealt with after the following species.

References:

ABBOTT, I.A. (1999). Marine Red Algae of the Hawaiian Islands. (Bishop Museum Press: Honolulu, Hawai'i.)

AGARDH, J.G. (1899). Analecta Algologica. Cont. V. Acta Univ. lund. 35, 1–160, Plates 1–3.

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

Author: H.B.S. Womersley & M.J. Parsons

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 MICROPEUCE

1. Main branches clothed with trichoblasts for up to 2 cm from apices, usually denuded below; trichoblasts 0.8–1.5 mm long; basal axes often covered with short, branched, processes 1–3 mm long	M feredayae
1. Main branches bearing discrete, glomerulate, tufts 2–3 (–4) mm long, each tuft with 1–3 branched axes bearing trichoblasts; trichoblasts 500–800 µm long; lower branches bare	M glomerulifera

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