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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Scaberia agardhii Greville 1830: xxxvi.

Phylum Phaeophyta – Order Fucales – Family Cystoseiraceae

Selected citations: Harvey 1860: pl. 164. Nizamuddin 1962c: 117, figs 1–7. Womersley 1967: 256.

Thallus (Plates 6 fig. 3,7 fig. I) medium brown, drying darker brown, 20–100 (–200) cm long, with a short stipe bearing several primary branches (1–) 4–10 cm long, with slender, radial, smooth, laterals; some laterals developing as long, branched, axes, naked below and 1–2 mm in diameter, covered above with laterally adjacent, peltate, determinate, much lobed laterals (Fig. 131A,B) which give the branch an irregularly verrucose appearance; such branches 4–6 (–8) mm in diameter. Holdfast discoid-conical, 3–10 mm across; epilithic. Determinate laterals 1–2 mm high and 2–4 mm across, with a stalk 0.5–1 mm long and the peltate head formed of much branched, successively slenderer, ramuli. Vesicles (Fig. 131A,B) scattered, formed within the peltate laterals, appearing as swellings, 3–7 mm in diameter. Growth from a single, three-sided, apical cell in an apical depression. Structure of central medulla of elongate cells and hyphae and an outer cortex of isodiametric cells with a surface meristoderm; outer cells densely phaeoplastic.

Reproduction: Thalli monoecious. Conceptacles (Fig. 131B) on short branchlets with no or few vesicles, within the walls of the peltate laterals, bisexual, with scattered ostioles; oogonia sessile, ovoid, 95–240 µm long and 60–90 µm in diameter, with a single egg; antheridia on branched paraphyses, elongate-ovoid, 25–45 µm long and 8–15 in diameter; simple, slender, paraphyses present in conceptacles.

Type from the Swan River Estuary (Fremantle), W. Aust.; in E.

Selected specimens: Coronation Group, Houtman Abrolhos, W. Aust. (Stacey, 24.viii.1970; ADU, A43787). Twilight Cove, Eyre, W. Aust., drift (Cambridge, 16.xii.1981; ADU, A56695). Point Fowler, S. Aust., upper sublittoral pools (Womersley, 6.ii.1954; ADU, A19457). Billy Lights Point, Port Lincoln, S. Aust., upper sublittoral (Womersley, 14.i.1987; ADU, A57364). Royston Head, Yorke Pen., S. Aust., 6–13 m deep (Shepherd, 14.iv.1963; ADU, A26549). Emu Bay, Kangaroo I., S. Aust., upper sublittoral (Womersley, 18.i.1945; ADU, A2356). Rosetta Bay, Victor Harbor, S. Aust., uppermost sublittoral (Womersley, 3.xii.1986; ADU, A57281-"Marine Algae of southern Australia" No. 273). Narrawong Beach, Portland, Vic., drift (Beauglehole, 15.v.1949; ADU, Al2017). Crawfish Rock, Westernport Bay, Vic., 0 m deep (Watson, 29.v.1974; ADU, A44425). E. of Gabo I., Vic., 70 µm ( =135 m) deep (F.I.S. "Endeavour", June 1914; NSW). Curries R. mouth, Tas., upper sublittoral (Womersley, 28.i.1949; ADU, A10302). Collaroy, N.S.W., drift (May 273, 24.viii.1944; NSW).


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

Distribution: From the Houtman Abrolhos, W. Aust. around southern Australia and northern Tasmania (to Oyster Bay), to Collaroy, N.S.W.

Lord Howe I.

Taxonomic notes: Scaberia is common in moderate to strong water movement on most of the southern Australian coast, from low tide level to about 40 m deep (the Gabo I. record appears to be unusually deep).

References:

GREVILLE, R.K. (1830). Algae Britannicae. (Edinburgh.)

HARVEY, W.H. (1860). Phycologia Australica. Vol. 3, Plates 121–180. (Reeve: London.)

NIZAMUDDIN, M. (1962c). The life history of Scaberia agardhii Greville. Ann. Bot., N.S., 26, 117–127.

WOMERSLEY, H.B.S. (1967). A critical survey of the marine algae of southern Australia. II. Phaeophyta. Aust. J. Bot. 15, 189–270.

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

Author: H.B.S. Womersley

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (14 December, 1987)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Part II
©Board of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, Government of South Australia


Illustrations in Womersley Part II, 1997: PLATES 6 fig. 3, 7 fig. 1; FIG. 131A,B.

Plate 6 image

Plate 6   enlarge

PLATE 6 fig. 1. Xiphophora gladiata as a dense belt just above Durvillaea at Bicheno, Tas.
fig. 2. Hormosira banksii f. sieberi (variant) at Boat Harbour Beach, Tas. (ADU, A57268).
fig. 3. Scaberia agardhii, from Billy Lights Point, Port Lincoln, S. Aust. (ADU, A57364).

Figure 131 image

Figure 131   enlarge

Fig. 131. A,B. Scaberia agardhii (ADU, A57281). A. Upper branches of thallus with peltate laterals and vesicles (lower right). B. Cross section of branch with conceptacles and a vesicle. C,D. Hormophysa triquetra (ADU, A57314). C. Cross section of branch with central vesicle and conceptacles. D. Section of vesicle wall with a bisexual conceptacle and a strand of small cells. E,F. Cystoseira trinodis (ADU, A57282). E. Upper branches with vesicles and receptacles. F. Cross section of receptacle with bisexual conceptacles.


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