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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus LEJOLISIA Bornet 1859: 80

Phylum Rhodophyta – Order Ceramiales – Family Ceramiaceae – Tribe Spermothamnieae

Thallus tufted and spreading, with prostrate filaments attached by digitate haptera, and
erect, irregularly branched, uniseriate filaments 2–15 mm high; epiphytic. Cells multinucleate.
Reproduction. Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps subapical on laterals of erect filaments,
with 3 periaxial cells, 2 sterile and one (the supporting cell) bearing a sterile apical cell and a
lateral carpogonial branch; the auxiliary cell divides post-fertilization to produce a terminal
gonimoblast initial and 2 lateral non-functional cells, the initial producing chains of short
gonimoblast cells (which later fuse) and terminal carposporangia. The sterile cells of the procarp divide post-fertilization to form 4 inner involucral filaments which branch and surround the carposporophyte, forming a pericarp of erect, discrete, filaments enclosed in a firm gelatinous sheath with an apical ostiole; outer involucral filaments absent. Spermatangial heads are subspherical to elongate, borne on erect filaments, each head with a short row of axial cells each bearing 2 or 3 periaxial cells each cutting off 2 or 3 terminal spermatangia, and often further spermatangial initials.

Tetrasporangia borne terminally on short pedicels occurring laterally on the erect axes, tetrahedrally divided.

Type species: L. mediterranea Bornet 1859: 91, pls 1,2.

Taxonomic notes: A genus of some six species, some of which are not known from cystocarpic plants and hence uncertain (see Gordon 1972, p. 143 and Itono 1977, p. 56). The genus is characterised by the carposporophyte being surrounded with a cellular pericarp enclosed in a firm gelatinous sheath.

References:

BORNET, E. (1859). Description d'un nouveau-genre de Floridées des côtes de France. Annls Sci. nat. (Bot.) 4 ser. 11, 80–92, Plates 1, 2.

GORDON, E.M. (1972). Comparative morphology and taxonomy of the Wrangelieae, Sphondylothamnieae and Spermothamnieae (Ceramiaceae, Rhodophyta). Aust. J. Bot. suppl. 4, 1–180.

ITONO, H. (1977). Studies on the Ceramiaceous algae (Rhodophyta) from southern parts of Japan. Bibliotheca Phycologia 35, 1–499.

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

Author: H.B.S. Womersley

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (24 December, 1998)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIIC. Ceramiales – Ceramiaceae, Dasyaceae
©State Herbarium of South Australia, Government of South Australia


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