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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus CORDYLECLADIA J. Agardh 1852: 702

Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Rhodymeniales – Family Rhodymeniaceae

Thallus erect, cartilaginous, with numerous terete to slightly compressed fronds from a crustose base, irregularly and sparsely branched, with swollen or short, ovoid, laterals. Structure multiaxial, solid, with a small-celled cortex 2–5 cells thick and a medulla of larger, pseudoparenchymatous, closely packed cells.

Reproduction: Fertile structures in swollen branch ends or ovoid, lateral ramuli near branch apices. Gametangial thalli dioecious. Carpogonial branches 3- or 4-celled, borne on inner cortical (supporting) cells together with a 2- or 3-celled auxiliary cell branch. Carposporophyte with a basal, usually branched, fusion cell and lobes of carposporangia developed from all cells. Basal nutritive tissue present, erect filaments weakly developed or absent. Cystocarps largely external, with a thick, ostiolate, pericarp. Spermatangia in sori on swollen apices or ovoid laterals, cut off via elongate initials from outer cortical cells.

Tetrasporangia terminal or intercalary, formed in sori in swollen apices or the ovoid ramuli, cruciately or decussately divided.

Life history triphasic with isomorphic gametophytes and tetrasporophytes.

Lectotype species: C. erecta (Greville) J. Agardh.

Taxonomic notes: A genus of 3 species, the type from Europe, C. furcellata from southern Australia, and C. guiryi Gargiulo, Furnari & Cormaci (1990, p. 632) from Sicily.

The type has been investigated in detail by Brodie & Guiry (1988b).

References:

AGARDH, J.G. (1852). Species Genera et Ordines Algarum. Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 337–720. (Gleerup: Lund.)

BRODIE, J. & GUIRY, M.D. (1988b). Life history and reproduction of Cordylecladia erecta (Rhodymeniaceae, Rhodophyta). Br. phycol. J. 23, 347–364.

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

Author: H.B.S. Womersley

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.


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