Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus MYCHODEA Hooker & Harvey 1847: 407 With the characters of the family.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Gigartinales – Family Mychodeaceae

Lectotype species: M. carnosa Hooker & Harvey 1847: 408.

References:

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

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

Author: G.T. Kraft & H.B.S. Womersley

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.

KEY TO SPECIES OF MYCHODEA

1. Thallus branches terete to compressed, (0.2–) 1–3 (–4) mm broad	2
1. Thallus foliose or with flat branches (2–) 3–10 mm broad	9
2. Branches terete or almost so, laterals irregularly radial	3
2. Branches compressed with laterals mostly marginal	7
3. Branches densely covered with short conical spines	M. spinulifera
3. Spines on branches absent or sparse and not conical	4
4. Thallus infested with the partly endophytic hydroid Plumularia flexuosa	M. aciculare
4. Thallus essentially free from infesting hydroids	5
5. Thallus 1–4 cm high, branches 200–500 µm in diameter, forming clumps on stems of Amphibolis	M. pusilla
5. Thallus 5–25 (–40) cm high, branches 2–4 mm in diameter, forming lax thalli or clumps on sea-grasses or epilithic	6
6. Thallus on rock or solid substrata; holdfasts thick, knobby; branchlets tapering to a point from rounded shoulders and slightly basally constricted; cystocarps subterminal in branchlets	M. carnosa
6. Thallus epiphytic on Amphibolis or Posidonia; holdfasts thin, crustose; branchlets tapering to an acute apex, not basally constricted; cystocarps sessile along branches	M. gracilaria
7. Thallus with erect branches arising from a tangled clump of prostrate stoloniferous branches	M. ramulosa
7. Thallus attached by a single crustose holdfast or by hamate branchlets	8
8. Apical cells inconspicuous; lateral branches often hamate	M. hamata
8. Apical cells prominent on young branchlets; hamate branches absent	M. disticha
9. Surfaces and margins covered with simple or branched spinous ramuli	M. acanthymenia
9. Thallus proliferations largely confined to the margins, with rounded or acute tips	10
10. Branch apices broadly rounded; apical cells and axial filaments inconspicuous; medulla of slender filaments; tetrasporangia scattered	M. margintfera
10. Branch apices more or less acute; apical cells and the central axial filament prominent throughout; medulla largely without slender filaments; tetrasporangia in slight nemathecia	M. australis

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