Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus PERRINIA Womersley, gen. nov.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Polysiphonieae

Thallus erect, tufted, with numerous indeterminate axes arising from prostrate basal stolons, the axes bearing determinate laterals more-or-less spirally; attachment by rhizoids from pericentral cells of stolons. Structure. Apical cells dome-shaped, subapical cells cutting off 11–13 (–15) pericentral cells close to apices, all branches remaining ecorticate. Trichoblasts usually prominent on determinate branches, on each segment or a few apart.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Carposporophytes with a basal fusion cell and branched gonimoblast with clavate terminal carposporangia. Cystocarps ovoid to urceolate, short-stalked; pericarp ostiolate, 2 cells thick, ecorticate. Spermatangial organs borne basally on trichoblasts, with a sterile basal cell only.

Tetrasporangia in branches of determinate laterals, usually 2 per segment (occasionally one), spirally arranged.

Type species: P. ericoides (Harvey in Hooker & Harvey 1847: 400)Womersley, comb. nov.

Taxonomic notes: Perrinia ericoides clearly is not a species of Bryocladia, where it was placed by Schmitz, differing from the type species, B. cervicornis, in lacking endogenous branching, in having prominent trichoblasts, and in having usually two tetrasporangia per segment. The latter feature is found in Leptosiphonia Kylin (1956, p. 509), but this genus does not have differentiation into indeterminate axes and short determinate laterals shown by Perrinia ericoides.

Perrinia is named after Mrs Florence Perrin, who collected extensively in the Georgetown region of Tasmania and whose specimens enrich several Australian herbaria.

References:

HOOKER, J.D. & HARVEY, W.H. (1847). Algae Tasmanicae. Lond. J. Bot. 6, 397–417.

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

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.

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