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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Anotrichium licmophorum (Harvey) Baldock 1976: 549, figs 49– 53, 87.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Order Ceramiales – Family Ceramiaceae – Tribe Griffithsieae

Synonyms

Callithamnion licmophorum Harvey 1859a: pl. 90; 1863, synop.: liii.

? Callithamnion flabelligerum Harvey 1855a: 562.

Griffithsia flabelligera (Harvey) J. Agardh 1876: 61. Sonder 1881: 11.

Monosporaflabelligera (Harvey) Schmitz in Schmitz & Hauptfleisch 1897: 489. Lucas 1909: 48.

Griffithsia licmophora J. Agardh 1876: 63. Sonder 1881: 11. Tisdall 1898: 502. Wilson 1892: 186.

Monospora (?) licmophora (Harvey) De Toni 1903: 1301. Lucas 1909: 48. Lucas & Perrin 1947: 329.

Neomonospora licmophora (Harvey) Womersley 1950: 177.

Corynospora licmophora (Harvey) Kylin 1956: 583. May 1965: 364.

Thallus (Fig. 161A) light red, 5–23 cm high, branching subdichotomous, main axes bearing regular, alternating, spreading lateral tufts (appearing flabellate when pressed) from each axial cell (Fig. 161B), clothed below with decurrent, anastomosing rhizoids. Attached by rhizoids bearing branched haptera (Fig. 160D); epiphytic. Structure. Cells of main axes 470–900 µm in diameter and L/D 3–4, basal cells of lateral tufts (Fig. 161B) significantly smaller, 220–320 µm in diameter and L/D 2.5–3.5, filament apices (Fig. 1601–1) mucronate, cells near the apex 25–50 µm in diameter and L/D 5–8.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Female axes (Fig. 160E), 3-celled, subapical, displaced laterally by the continued growth of the vegetative axes, flanked by a pair of synchronic hair-like laterals; procarp systems subapical, each with a sterile lateral cell abaxially and an adaxial supporting cell bearing a sterile cell apically and a curved, 4-celled carpogonial branch laterally; hypogenous cell enlarging, becoming pyriform, 200–370 µm in diameter and L/D 1.3–1.5, producing from its upper shoulder a whorl of 12–13, incurved, 1-celled synchronic involucral branches, 70–90 µm in diameter and L/D 6–7; fusion cell T-shaped to columnar bearing 1–3 gonimolobes terminally (Fig. 160F), most cells of which become globose-ovoid carposporangia, 35–45 µm in diameter. Carposporophyte 450–700 µm across. Spermatangia solitary, borne in heads (Fig. 160G) 130–225 µm in diameter and L/D 1–1.5, on clavate pedicels 80–120 µm in diameter and L/D 1.4–1.7, adaxial from cells towards the ends of lateral tufts; each spermatangial head initially globose, with 3 axial cells each bearing 4–5 periaxial cells dividing polychotomously several times, terminal cells budding off 1–2 spermatia, heads becoming pyramidal and lobed as the axial cells elongate.

Tetrasporangia (Fig. 160H) terminal on cylindrical pedicels 30–35 µm in diameter and L/D about 1, produced adaxially, singly or occasionally in pairs from the shoulders of cells near the apices of lateral branch tufts, occasionally on decurrent rhizoids (Fig. 160D), globose, 60–90 p m in diameter, tetrahedrally divided.

Lectotype from Westernport, Vic. (Harvey); in Herb. Harvey, TCD, Alg. Aust. Exsicc. 536. Isotype in MEL, 655.

Selected specimens: Tiparra Reef, S. Aust., on Amphibolis griffithii, 12 m deep (Shepherd, 27.vii.1970; AD, A35998), and on A. antarctica, 12 m deep (Shepherd, 19.v.1971; AD, A38567). West Bay, Kangaroo I., S. Aust., on fucoids, drift (Womersley, 6.i.1946; AD, A3236). Seal Bay, Kangaroo I., S. Aust., on Acrocarpia paniculata, drift (Baldock, 21.i.1965; AD, A28579 - "Marine Algae of Southern Australia" No. 175). Port Phillip Heads, Vic., drift (Sinkora, A1171, 8–12.xi.1970; AD, A62629). Westernport, Vic. drift (Sinkora A1314, 29.x.1971; AD, A63638).


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

Distribution: Garden I., W. Aust. to Westernport, Victoria.

Taxonomic notes: Small plants of A. licmophorum, consisting of a few subdichotomous lateral tufts are virtually indistinguishable from spicate forms of A. elongatum unless tetrasporangia (solitary in A. licmophorum and in clusters of 3–7 in A. elongatum) are present. Although other reproductive features are identical, the spreading lateral tufts with immediate and pronounced narrowing of filaments from axes to laterals, which regularly alternate along the axes in A. licmophorum distinguish larger plants of this species from A. elongatum.

References:

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

BALDOCK, R.N. (1976). The Griffithsieae group of the Ceramiaceae (Rhodophyta) and its southern Australian representatives. Aust. J. Bot. 24, 509–593.

DE TONI, G.B. (1903). Sylloge Algarum omnium hucusque Cognitarum. Vol. 4. Florideae. Sect. 3, pp. 775–1521 + 1523–1525. (Padua.)

HARVEY, W.H. (1855a). Some account of the marine botany of the colony of Western Australia. Trans. R. Jr. Acad. 22, 525–566.

HARVEY, W.H. (1859a). Phycologia Australica. Vol. 2, Plates 61–120. (Reeve: London.)

HARVEY, W.H. (1863). Phycologia Australica. Vol. 5, Plates 241–300, synop., pp. i-lxxiii. (Reeve: London.)

KYLIN, H. (1956). Die Gattungen der Rhodophyceen. (Gleerups: Lund.)

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

LUCAS, A.H.S. (1909). Revised list of the Fucoideae and Florideae of Australia. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 34, 9–60.

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.

SCHMITZ, F. & HAUPTFLEISCH, P. (1897). Ceramiaceae. In Engler, A. & Prantl, K., Die natarlichen Pflanzenfamilien, Vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 481–504. (Leipzig.)

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. (1950). The marine algae of Kangaroo Island. III. List of Species 1. Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 73, 137–197.

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

Author: R. N. Baldock

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


Illustrations in Womersley Part IIIA, 1998: FIGS 160 D–H, 161A, B.

Figure 160 image

Figure 160   enlarge

Fig. 160. A–C. Anotrichium subtile (AD, A32281). A. Procarp just after fertilisation. B. Mature carposporophyte of diminutive size. C. Branches bearing pedicellate tetrasporangia. D–H Anotrichium licmophorum (AD, A28597). D. Rhizoids near the thallus base, attached by branched haptera, and bearing tetrasporangia. E. Mature female axis. F. Young carposporophyte. G. Spermatangial head, upper portion in longitudinal section. H. Tetrasporangia, in dichotomies of lateral branch tufts with mucronate apices. (All as in Baldock 1976, courtesy of Aust. J. Bot.)

Figure 161 image

Figure 161   enlarge

Fig. 161. A, B. Anotrichium licmophorum (AD, A28579). A. Habit. B. Detail of the regular, alternate, lateral tufts. C. Anotrichium crinitum (AD, A 24403). Habit. (A, C, as in Baldock 1976, courtesy of Aust. J. Bot.)


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