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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Pneophyllum fragile Kützing 1843: 385.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Corallinales – Family Corallinaceae – Subfamily Mastophoroideae

Selected citations: Chamberlain 1983: 300,356–359, figs 24–27; 1994b: 141, figs 64,65. Penrose & Woelkerling 1991: 495, figs 1–27.

Synonyms

Melobesia pruinosa Razing 1845: 295 (see Chamberlain 1983: 359).

Pneophyllum lejolisii (Rosanoff) Chamberlain 1983: 359.

Thallus encrusting, epiphytic and affixed by cell adhesion. Structure pseudoparenchymatous; organisation dorsiventral; construction dimerous, consisting of a single ventral layer of branched filaments composed of non-palisade cells, and unicellular or multicellular simple or branched filaments that arise more or less perpendicularly from cells of ventral layer filaments, each filament composed of cells 5–14 µm in diameter and 3–11 µm long; epithallial cells terminating filaments at the thallus surface, distal walls rounded or flattened but not flared; cells of adjacent filaments joined by cell-fusions, secondary pit-connections absent; trichocytes present or absent, if present, usually occurring singly at thallus surface, not becoming buried within thallus.

Reproduction: Vegetative reproduction unknown. Gametangia, carposporangia, tetrasporangia and bisporangia produced in uniporate conceptacles.

Gametangial plants monoecious; carpogonia and spermatangia produced in separate conceptacles. Carpogonia terminating 3-celled filaments arising from the female conceptacle chamber floor. Mature female-carposporangial conceptacle roofs protruding above or flush with surrounding thallus surface, composed of 4–6 cells above the chamber, pores lacking coronas of filaments and flush with surrounding thallus surface, conceptacle chambers 196–218 µm in diameter and 49–150 µm high. Carposporophytes developing within older female conceptacles after karyogamy, when mature composed of a large central fusion cell and with gonimoblast filaments bearing terminal carposporangia. Spermatangial filaments unbranched, arising from the floor of male conceptacle chambers, mature male conceptacle roofs protruding above or flush with surrounding thallus surface, conceptacle chambers 82–109 µm in diameter and 49–91 µm high.

Tetrasporangial and bisporangial conceptacle roofs protruding above or flush with surrounding thallus surface, 2–10 cells thick above the chamber, pore canals lined with protruding cells, pores lacking coronas of filaments and flush with surrounding thallus surface, conceptacle chambers 80–265 µm in diameter and 55–195 µm high; tetrasporangia and bisporangia usually peripheral to a central columella, sometimes scattered across the conceptacle chamber floor, each mature sporangium 15–45 µm in diameter and 20–85 µm long, zonately divided.

Type from an unknown locality in the Mediterranean Sea; holotype in L (941.241–152); illustrated by Chamberlain (1983, figs 24–27) and Penrose & Woelkerling (1991, figs 1–8).

Selected specimens: Mabel Cove, Rottnest I., W. Aust., reef edge on Laurencia (Woelkerling, 9.ii.1978; LTB, 10848). Bunbury, W. Aust., 0–1 m deep (Woelkerling, 5.ii.1978; LTB, 10570). Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand, W. Aust., 0–2 m deep (Woelkerling, Platt & Jones, 9.ii.1984; LTB, 14331). Point Malcolm, SW of Israelite Bay, W. Aust., 0–2 m deep (Woelkerling, Platt & Jones, 7.ii.1984, LTB, 14201). Nine Mile Reef, W of Eyre, W. Aust., 2–3 m deep (Woelkerling, Platt & Jones, 1.ii.1984; LTB, 13946). Point Sinclair, S. Aust., 0–2 m deep (Woelkerling, Platt & Jones, 15.ii.1984; LTB, 14474). Penneshaw, Kangaroo I., S. Aust., 0–2 m deep (Campbell & Penrose, 13.iv.1988; LTB, 15675). Beachport, S. Aust., 3–6 m deep (Campbell & Penrose, 26.ii.1988; LTB, 15689). Marengo, Apollo Bay, Vic., reef edge (Woelkerling, 11.i.1984; LTB, 13930, 13931). Blanket Bay, Otway National Park, Vic., 4 m deep (Campbell, May & Penrose, 14.xi.1985; LTB, 15244). Rye (ocean beach), Vic., tide pools (Kay, 6.i.1978; LTB, 11130). Sealers Cove, Wilsons Prom., Vic., upper subtidal (Leach, 19.vii.1977; LTB, 10131). Snug Cove, Clarke I., Bass Strait, Tas., 6–7 m deep (Leach, 28.ii.1979; LTB, 11599). Bluestone Bay, Freycinet Pen., Tas., 0–4 m deep (Platt & Woelkerling, 21.ii.1983; LTB, 13036). Sister Bay, Southport, Tas., 3–4 m deep (Platt, Woelkerling & Thomas, 16.ii.1983; LTB, 12875). Safety Cove (N shore), Port Arthur, Tas., 0–2 m deep (Platt & Woelkerling, 25.ii.1983; LTB, 12835).


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

Distribution: British Isles; Canada; Caribbean; Europe; Mediterranean Sea; Pacific Mexico; subtropical and tropical W. Aust.; USA; USSR (see Chamberlain 1983, pp. 359, 360; Penrose & Woelkerling 1991, p. 501).

In southern Australia, Bunbury, W. Aust., eastwards to Sealers Cove, Wilsons Prom., Vic., and around Tasmania.

Taxonomic notes: P. fragile is a variable species (see Penrose & Woelkerling 1991) that occurs commonly on Acrocarpia spp., Laurencia spp., and on the seagrass Amphibolis antarctica. Additional data on the species have been provided by Penrose & Woelkerling (1991).

References:

CHAMBERLAIN, Y.M. (1983). Studies in the Corallinaceae with special reference to Fosliella and Pneophyllum in the British Isles. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. Hist. (Bot.) 11, 291–463.

CHAMBERLAIN, Y.M. (1994b). Mastophoroideae. In Irvine, L. M. & Chamberlain, Y. M. (Eds), Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 1 Rhodophyta Part 2B Corallinales, Hildenbrandiales pp. 113–158. (HMSO: London.)

KÜTZING, F.T. (1843). Phycologia generalis. (Leipzig.)

PENROSE, D. & WOELKERLING, Wm. J. (1991). Pneophyllum fragile in southern Australia: implications for generic concepts in the Mastophoroideae (Corallinaceae, Rhodophyta). Phycologia 30, 495–506.

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

Author: D.L. Penrose

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (28 June, 1996)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIIB. Gracilarialse, Rhodymeniales, Corallinales and Bonnemaisoniales
Reproduced with permission from The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIB 1996, by H.B.S. Womersley. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia.


Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 1996: FIG. 123.

Figure 123 image

Figure 123   enlarge

Fig. 123. Pneophyllum fragile (A, LTB, 10848; B, LTB, 13930; C, LTB, 13036; D, LTB, 13931). A. Plants epiphytic on Laurencia sp. B. Section of tetrasporangial conceptacle containing sporangia peripherally in the chamber and a columella centrally. C. Section of conceptacle containing spermatangia that have arisen from initials formed across the chamber floor. Note the pore has an elongate mucilaginous spout. D. Section of conceptacle containing a carposporophyte with a fusion cell present across the chamber floor, gonimoblast filaments borne peripherally in the chamber at the margins of the fusion cell and bearing terminal carposporangia.


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