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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Delisea elegans Lamouroux 1819: 42.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Bonnemaisoniales – Family Bonnemaisoniaceae

Selected citations: Adams 1972: 70; 1994: 239, pl. 88 lower right. Adams et al. 1974: 213. J. Agardh 1852: 781; 1876: 670. Bonin & Hawkes 1988a: 624, figs 20, 21, 24–27. Chapman 1969: 83, pl. 21. De Toni 1900b: 760. Guiler 1952: 84. Harvey 1849: 89, pl. 34 upper. Kützing 1849: 770; 1868: 24, pl. 69a-c. Levring 1953: 519, figs 47, 48. Lucas 1929a: 20. Lucas & Perrin 1947: 240, fig. 104. May 1965: 374. Sonder 1881: 30. Tisdall 1898: 512. Wilson 1892: 169. Womersley 1966: 145.

Synonyms

Bonnemaisonia elegans C. Agardh 1822: 198; 1824: 246. Harvey 1844: 442.

Calocladia elegans (C. Agardh) J. Agardh 1841: 21.

Thallus (Fig. 152A) medium red to dark red-brown, fading to yellow-grey, 10–30 cm high, complanately and alternately much branched, branches slender, terete to compressed, 250–500 µm broad above, 0.5–1 mm broad and subterete below where mostly denuded of ramuli. Lesser branches with regularly spaced, alternately distichous, terete ramuli 1–1.5 mm long and 100–200 µm in diameter near their base. Holdfast discoid, becoming knobby, 1–3 mm across with a single stipe; epilithic or occasionally epiphytic. Structure uniaxial (Fig. 152B, C), with a small apical cell, the subapical cell(s) cutting off two pairs of lateral and transverse periaxial cells, the lateral of the first pair producing the more strongly developed filament forming the alternate ramuli (Fig. 152C), with the lateral periaxial cell of the second pair remaining ovoid and not forming a distinct filament of elongate cells; the latter and the transverse periaxial cells contribute to the cortex near the compressed apices. Main branches 12–20 cells thick, the axial filament 20–50 µm in diameter, with a sheath of smaller cells; inner cortical cells ovoid, 30–100 µm in diameter, with a few intermixed small cells, outer cortical cells angular, 6–12 µm across, with occasional scattered gland cells. Rhodoplasts discoid, numerous per cell, becoming ribbon like in inner cells.

Reproduction: Gametangial thalli monoecious. Carpogonial branches unknown. Carposporophyte (Fig. 152D) associated with the less well developed lateral periaxial filament, probably arising from the basal cell, thus lying between two ramuli, with a basal fusion cell adjacent to a group of darker-staining (nutritive?) cortical cells, and a short tuft of slender, branched, gonimoblast filaments with terminal elongate-ovoid carposporangia 20–60 µm in diameter. Cystocarps (Fig. 152C) lying on the flat surface between ramuli near branch ends, sessile, 400–600 µm across with a thick pericarp (with inward growing branched filaments) and an ostiole. Spermatangial sori (Fig. 152E) in scattered patches or covering the ramuli, with elongate spermatangia cut off from outer cortical cells, 2–3 µm in diameter.

Tetrasporangia uncertain, possibly formed on small crusts (Bonin & Hawkes 1988a, p. 624).

Type from "Nouvelle-Hollande"; lectotype(?) in Herb. Lamouroux, CN. (Probably from SE Tasmania.)

Selected specimens: "Occid. N. Holl." (Herb. Agardh, LD, 37407, type of B. elegans C. Agardh). Egg I., Isles of St Francis, S. Aust., 32–38 m deep (Shepherd, 11.i.1971; AD, A62810). Investigator Strait, S. Aust., 31 m deep (Watson, 25.i.1971; AD, A38183). Dubious Rock, West I., S. Aust., 13 and 16 m deep (Shepherd, 3.i.I966; AD, A30350 and A30231 resp.). Portland, Vic., 10–13 m deep (Kraft 6326, 30.xii.1976; MELU). Warrnambool, Vic., drift (Kraft 8249, 30.xii.1989; MELU). Queenscliff, Vic., drift (Norris, 21.i.1963; AD, A27476). Portsea, Vic., 3–5 m deep at jetty (Kraft 8955 & Saunders, 24.iii.1992; MELU). Waratah Bay, Vic., drift (Sinkora A2343, 3.iii.1977; AD, A48348). Gabo I., Vic., 28 m deep (Shepherd, 19.ii.1973; AD, A43532). Ulverstone, Tas. (Perrin & Lucas, April 1936; AD, A61901). Low Head, Tas. (Perrin, 8.x.1950; AD, A47161). Marion Bay, Tas., 3–5 m deep (Shepherd, 13.ii.1970; AD, A35593). Great Taylor Bay, Bruny I., Tas., 6 m deep (Shepherd, 7.ii.1970; AD, A35531).


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

Distribution: "Occid. N. Holl." (W. Aust.), to Gabo I., Vic., and around Tasmania. New Zealand (Wellington south).

Taxonomic notes: D. elegans is a delicate, complanately branched, species, with most ramuli unbranched.

References:

ADAMS, N.M. (1972). The marine algae of the Wellington area. A list of species. Rec. Dom. Mus. (Wellington) 8(5), 43–98.

ADAMS, N.M. (1994). Seaweeds of New Zealand. (Cant. Univ. Press: Christchurch.)

ADAMS, N.M., CONWAY, E. & NORRIS, R.E. (1974). The marine algae of Stewart Island. A list of species. Rec. Dom. Mus. (Wellington) 8(14), 185–245.

AGARDH, C.A. (1822). Species Algarum. Vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 169–398. (Berling: Lund.)

AGARDH, C.A. (1824). Systema Algarum. (Berling: Lund.)

AGARDH, J.G. (1841). In historiam algarum symbolae. Linnaea 15, 1–50, 443–457.

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

AGARDH, J.G. (1876). Species Genera et Ordines Algarum. Vol. 3, Part 1 — Epicrisis systematis Floridearum, pp. i-vii, 1–724. (Weigel: Leipzig.)

BONIN, D.R. & HAWKES, M.W. (1988a). Systematics and life histories of New Zealand Bonnemaisoniaceae (Bonnemaisoniales, Rhodophyta): H. The genus Delisea. N.Z. J. Bot. 26, 619–632.

CHAPMAN, V.J. (1969). The marine algae of New Zealand. Part III: Rhodophyceae. Issue 1: Bangiophycidae and Florideophycidae (Nemalionales, Bonnemaisoniales, Gélidiales), pp. 1–113, Plates 1–38. (Cramer: Germany.)

DE TONI, G.B. (1900b). Sylloge Algarum omnium hucusque Cognitarum. Vol. 4. Florideae. Sect. 2, pp. 387–776. (Padua.)

GUILER, E.R. (1952). The marine algae of Tasmania. Check List with localities. Pap. Proc. R. Soc. Tasm. 86, 71–106.

KÜTZING, F.T. (1849). Species Algarum. (Leipzig.)

KÜTZING, F.T. (1868). Tabulae Phycologicae. Vol. 18. (Nordhausen.)

LAMOUROUX, J.V.F. (1819). Delisea. Dict. Sci. Nat. (Levrault) 13, 41–42.

LEVRING, T. (1953). The marine algae of Australia. I. Rhodophyta: Goniotrichales, Bangiales and Nemalionales. Arkiv för Bot. Ser. 2, 2, 457–530.

LUCAS, A.H.S. & PERRIN, F. (1947). The Seaweeds of South Australia. Part 2. The Red Seaweeds. (Govt Printer: Adelaide.)

LUCAS, A.H.S. (1929a). The marine algae of Tasmania. Pap. Proc. R. Soc. Tasm. 1928, 6–27.

MAY, V. (1965). A census and key to the species of Rhodophyceae (red algae) recorded from Australia. Contr. N.S.W. natn. Herb. 3, 349–429.

SONDER, O.W. (1881). In Mueller, F., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. Supplementum ad volumen undecinum: Algae Australianae hactenus cognitae, pp. 1–42, 105–107. (Melbourne.)

TISDALL, H.T. (1898). The algae of Victoria. Rep. 7th Meet. Aust. Ass. Adv. Sci., Sydney, 1898, pp. 493–516.

WILSON, J.B. (1892). Catalogue of algae collected at or near Port Phillip Heads and Western Port. Proc. R. Soc. Vict. 4, 157–190.

WOMERSLEY, H.B.S. (1966). Port Phillip survey, 1957–1963: Algae. Mem. natn. Mus., Vict. No. 27, 133–156.

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.


Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 1996: FIG. 152.

Figure 152 image

Figure 152   enlarge

Fig. 152. Delisea elegans (A, C, D, AD, A30350; B, E, AD, A27476). A. Habit. B. Apex of a branch. C. Longitudinal flat section of a branch with cystocarp. D. Carposporophyte. E. Branch with spermatangial sori.


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