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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus WEBERVANBOSSEA J. De Toni 1936: 5

Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Rhodymeniales – Family Rhodymeniaceae

Thallus erect, irregularly radially branched, segmented with narrow constrictions, segments hollow but mucilage filled. Structure multiaxial, segments with a thin cortex, outer cells in very short anticlinal chains, and a medulla 1–2 cells thick with inner filaments bearing secretory cells.

Reproduction: Gametangial thalli dioecious. Carpogonial branches 3-celled, borne on inner cortical supporting cells together with auxiliary cell branches. Carposporophytes developing outwards, with erect fusion cells and a dense mass of carposporangia from all gonimoblast cells, often with later lobes developing. Basal nutritive tissue present, with the erect filaments persistent or not. Cystocarps immersed in the segments, relatively flat-topped, with an underlying layer of large medullary cells, pericarp moderately thick, ostiolate. Spermatangia in surface sori, cut off from outer cortical cells.

Tetrasporangia in scattered nemathecia, among paraphyses 4–8 cells long, pit-connected basally to outer cortical or lower paraphysal cells, decussately or cruciately divided.

Life history triphasic with isomorphic gametophytes and tetrasporophytes.

Type species: W. splachnoides (Harvey) J. De Toni 1936: 6.

Taxonomic notes: A genus of three southern Australian species, probably most closely related to Coelarthrum but differing in having a cortex of short anticlinal filaments, immersed cystocarps and tetrasporangia in nemathecia and borne laterally on inner cells.

References:

DE TONI, J. (1936). Noterelle di nomenclatura algologica. VII. Primo elenco di Floridée omonime. (Brescia, priv. publ.)

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.

KEY TO SPECIES OF WEBERVANBOSSEA

1. Thallus simple, saccate, cylindrical to inflated, not constricted

W. tasmanensis

1. Thallus much branched, constricted at branch bases or along the branches

2

2. Thallus with constrictions only at the base of lateral branches; partitions of constrictions thick, pseudoparenchymatous; cystocarps with erect filaments from nutritive tissue not persistent

W. splachnoides

2. Thallus with constrictions at the base of lateral branches and also along the branch; partitions of constrictions essentially monostromatic; cystocarps with erect filaments from nutritive tissue persistent (a "tela arachnoidea")

W. kaliformis


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