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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Dasya cliftonii Harvey 1855a: 542; 1858: pl. 3; 1863, synop.: xxiii.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Order Ceramiales – Family Dasyaceae

Selected citations: J. Agardh 1863: 1194; 1890a: 98. De Toni 1903: 1195. Huisman & Walker 1990: 427. Kützing 1864: 25, pl. 69a–c. Lucas 1912: 158; 1929b: 52. Lucas & Perrin 1947: 312, fig. 149. Reinbold 1899: 49. Silva et al. 1996: 435. Sonder 1881: 36.

Synonym

Baillouviana cliftonii (Harvey) Kuntze 1891: 885.

Thallus (Fig. 204A) medium red to red-brown, soft, mucilaginous, (5–) 10–30 cm high, with one to a few relatively slender axes bearing alternate laterals radially to subdistichously (Fig. 204B), denuded below but with tufted filaments on branch ends. Main axes somewhat flexuous, 400–700 µm in diameter, bare, corticated, irregularly subdichotomous, with alternate laterals, more or less pyramidal in outline. Laterals with 2–3 orders of branches, more or less subdistichous and mostly two segments apart (some on each segment), alternately divaricate, arising from the first branch of a pseudolateral or adventitiously from the basal cell. Holdfast discoid, 1–3 mm across; epiphytic on Amphibolis. Structure. Pericentral cells 5, quickly corticated by rhizoidal filaments, leaving the pericentral cells visible in transverse section but becoming separated from each other by slender rhizoids, some of which later become as large as the pericentral cells; outer cortical cells irregularly placed, ovoid to elongate. Pseudolaterals arising from each 1 (–2) segments, lost from older parts, 1–2mm long, divaricately and repeatedly branched every 1–2 cells, basal cells 45–65 µm in diameter and L/D 2–5, above gradually attenuate to an acute apex which is often lost. Adventitious monosiphonous filaments absent. Rhodoplasts discoid, becoming chained and reticulate.

Reproduction: Procarps not observed. Carposporophyte with a slight fusion cell and numerous darkly staining cells (Fig. 204C) of the lower pericarp and adjacent vegetative cells, gonimoblast much branched with short terminal chains of ovoid carposporangia 15–20 µm in diameter. Cystocarps (Fig. 204C, D) sessile on the base of short lateral branches, ovoid, with a slight to distinct neck, 300–600 µm in diameter. Pericarp with 10–14 erect filaments cutting off pericentral and cortical cells which become ovoid and irregularly placed. Spermatangial branches unknown.

Stichidia (Fig. 204E, F) borne as the ultimate branches of pseudolaterals on a single-celled monosiphonous stalk, 400–700 µm long and 100–200 µm in diameter, lanceoid, with about 6 fertile segments and 4 sporangia per segment, arranged in longitudinal rows, often ending in a simple or branched filament. Tetrasporangia 30–55 µm in diameter, each with 2–3 ovoid cover cells.

Type from Fremantle, W. Aust. (Clifton); lectotype (stichidial), here selected, in TCD.

Selected specimens: Cliff Head, W. Aust., drift (Womersley, 18.ix.1979; AD, A51235). Point Peron, W. Aust., drift (Parsons, 15.xi.1968; AD, A33379; CHR, 315474). Barker Rocks, Yorke Pen., S. Aust., on Amphibolis antarctica, drift (Womersley, 17.x.1989; AD, A59880). Sturt Bay, S. Aust. (Davey 223; AD, A1429).


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

Distribution: Cliff Head, W. Aust., to Sturt Bay, S. Australia.

Taxonomic notes: D. cliftonii is a distinctive species in its habit and the regularly alternate, radial to subdistichous branching mostly every two segments. However it is known from few specimens and only two cystocarpic collections are known (AD, A51235, A59880).

References:

AGARDH, J.G. (1863). Species Genera et Ordines Algarum. Vol. 2, Part 3, pp. 787–1291. (Gleerup: Lund.)

AGARDH, J.G. (1890a). Till algernes systematik. Acta Univ. lund. 26(3), 1–125, Plates 1–3.

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. (1858). Phycologia Australica. Vol. 1, Plates 1–60. (Reeve: London.)

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

HUISMAN, J.M. & WALKER, D.I. (1990). A catalogue of the marine plants of Rottnest Island, Western Australia, with notes on their distribution and biogeography. Kingia 1, 349–459.

KÜTZING, F.T. (1864). Tabulae Phycologicae. Vol. 14. (Nordhausen.)

KUNTZE, O. (1891). Revisio generum Plantarum. Part II. 4. Algae, pp. 877–930. (Leipzig.)

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

LUCAS, A.H.S. (1912). Supplementary list of the marine algae of Australia. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 37, 157–171.

LUCAS, A.H.S. (1929b). A census of the marine algae of South Australia. Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 53, 45–53.

REINBOLD, T. (1899). Meeresalgen von Investigator Street (Slid Australien), gesammelt von Miss Nellie Davey (Waltham, Honiton). Hedwigia 38, 39–51.

SILVA, P.C., BASSON, P.W. & MOE, R.L. (1996). Catalogue of the Benthic Marine Algae of the Indian Ocean. (University of California Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles & London.)

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

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

Author: M.J. Parsons and 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


Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 1998: FIG. 204.

Figure 204 image

Figure 204   enlarge

Fig. 204. Dasya cliftonii (A, lectotype in TCD; B, C, E,F, AD, A59880; D, AD, A51235). A. Habit of lectotype. B. Branch with subdistichous laterals bearing pseudolaterals and cystocarps. C. Young cystocarp with darkly stained cells around the fusion cell and developing gonimoblast. D. Mature cystocarps with carposporophytes. E. Branch with stichidia. F. Stichidium with branched apical filament.


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