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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet
Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Nemaliales – Family Galaxauraceae
Synonym
Helminthiopsis (?) rosea J. Agardh 1899: 98. Setchell 1912: 248.
Thallus (Fig. 30A) rose-red, about 3 cm high, much branched with short, irregular laterals 2–5 mm long and 0.5–1 mm in diameter on more or less furcate main branches. Holdfast small, discoid. Structure multiaxial, developing a central core (becoming 300–350 µm in diameter) of filaments 10–20 µm in diameter (with slender hyphae 2–3 µm in diameter), and from which radiate di- or trichotomously branched medullary filaments 4–6 µm in diameter, inner cells L/D 4–10, with a cortex (Fig. 30B) of smaller, loosely aggregated, rhodoplastic, more or less ovoid, outer cells 3–4 µm in diameter and L/D (1–) 2–3, without any colourless utricles.
Reproduction: Sexual thalli monoecious. Carpogonial branches and their development unknown. Cystocarps (Fig. 30B) 60–100 µm in diameter, urceolate, lying within the cortex, with a slight involucre of filaments within a gelatinous sheath; carposporophyte densely branched (carposporangia immature). Spermatangia cut off from outer cortical cells in small clusters, ovoid, 1–2 µm in diameter.
Type from Port Phillip Heads, Vic. (Wilson 33, 23.i.1886); holotype in Herb. Agardh, LD, 31989.
Distribution: Only known from the holotype specimen.
Taxonomic notes: This taxon was placed by Levring (1953, p. 508) as a synonym of Gloiophloea scinaioides, but it is quite different in form from the latter species. Further understanding of its structure, reproduction and relationships must await study of more material, but for the time being it seems best placed in Gloiophloea.
References:
AGARDH, J.G. (1899). Analecta Algologica. Cont. V. Acta Univ. lund. 35, 1–160, Plates 1–3.
LEVRING, T. (1953). The marine algae of Australia. I. Rhodophyta: Goniotrichales, Bangiales and Némalionales. Arkiv för Bot. Ser. 2, 2, 457–530.
SETCHELL, W.A. (1912). Algae novae et minus cognitae, I. Univ. Calif Pubis Bot. 4, 229–269.
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIA complete list of references.
Publication:
Womersley, H.B.S. (14 January, 1994)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIIA, Bangiophyceae and Florideophyceae (to Gigartinales)
Reproduced with permission from The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIA 1994, by H.B.S. Womersley. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia.
Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 1994: FIG. 30A, B.
Figure 30 enlarge
Fig. 30. A, B. Gloiophloea rosea (LD, 31989, holotype). A. Outline of habit of the type specimen. B. Medullary and cortical filaments and cystocarp (from the dried type). C–F. Nothogenia fastigiata. (AD, A56468). C. Carpogonial branch with sterile filaments from hypogynous and basal cells. D. An older stage of C. E. Young gonimoblast developing from fertilized carpogonium, hypogynous cell with sterile filaments. F. Older gonimoblast. G–J. Galaxaura obtusata. G. Section of cortex of gametophyte [Cairns, Qld., 1 m deep (Harada, 1.xii.1976; AD, A52450; Murdoch, R2217)]. H. Section of cortex of sporophyte (Murdoch, J.H. 179W). I. Carpogonial branch with sterile filaments on hypogynous and basal cells (as for G above). J. Terminal tetrasporangia on outer cortical cells [Red Bluff, Kalbarri, W.Aust., 7-10 m deep (Kraft & Ricker, 15.xii.1980; MELU, A35329)1. [C–F after Huisman & Womersley 1992; G–J after Huisman & Borowitzka 1990.]
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